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SPARE    MI  N\OJT  E    SERIES. 


THE  MffiBF  OF  RIGHT, 


Of  WILLIAM  EWART  GLADSTONE. 


SELECTED   BY 

E-  BR  OWN. 


WITH   AN   INTRODUCTION    BY 

JOHN   D-    LONG. 


BOSTON: 
D.   LOTHROP    &    CO., 

FRANKLIN   STREET,   CORNER  OF   HAWLEY. 


COPYRIGHT   BY 

D.     LOTHROP    &    CO. 
1880. 


INTRODUCTION. 


IT  was  a  worth-while  suggestion  to  provide  for  spare 
minutes  communion  with  the  choice  utterances  of  an  am- 
ple mind  loosed  from  task-work  and  at  large  in  "  the 
Sabbath  of  that  deeper  sea,"  where  its  contemplations  are 
serenest.  Great  men  are  no  longer  of  most  interest  for  the 
events  of  their  lives.  We  rate  them  rather  by  the  measure 
and  influence  of  their  thought  and  speech.  So  the  following 
extracts  are  a  good  biography  in  short  of  Mr.  Gladstone,  for 
they  reveal  him  in  something  better  than  his  political  great- 
ness —  they  reveal  him  in  what  makes  him  and  best  makes 
any  man  great  —  the  loftiness  of  his  moral  sentiment. 

This  book  comes  at  an  opportune  moment,  when  the 
whole  world  is  on  tip-toe  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  foremost 
man  in  England.  Certainly  so  sympathetic  toward  him  is 


iv  Introduction. 

the  American  heart  that  for  us  his  return  to  the  premiership 
brings  with  it  almost  the  warmth  and  exultation  of  a  victory 
of  our  own.  His  kindly  words  in  our  behalf,  his  recognition 
of  our  achievements  and  progress,  his  avowed  faith  in  the 
elasticity  and  promise  of  our  political  system  and  in  the 
ability  of  our  public  men  to  maintain  it,  his  admiration  of 
our  national  financial  triumphs,  and  his  whole  career  of  lib- 
eral statesmanship  have  given  him  a  strong  hold  upon  our 
regard.  No  premier  since  the  first  Pitt  has  excelled  him 
in  the  admiration  of  the  daughter-land. 

It  is  only  necessary  to  read  these  extracts  from  his  pen  to 
realize  how  varied  the  culture,  how  outreaching  the  experi- 
ence and  pursuits,  how  vast  the  range  of  study  and  observa- 
tion that  have  all  conspired  to  forge  the  armor  and  temper 
the  sword  of  this  champion  of  the  liberals.  Not  the  pains- 
taking fabrications  that  exhaust  the  materials  from  which 
they  rise,  they  are  rather  the  overflow  of  a  capacious  mind 
fed  from  unfailing  springs.  The  philosopher,  the  poet,  the 
teacher,  the  divine  together,  and  not  alone  the  statesman, 
might  have  written  them.  A  lover  of  the  rarest  learning  of 
the  closet,  he  has  not  forgotten  that  education  should  be  as 
broadcast  as  the  children  of  men :  a  leader  of  government, 
he  has  not  forgotten  that  government  is  for  all  the  people : 
guarding  the  interests  of  capital,  he  has  been  tender  of  the 
rights  of  labor.  Orator,  financier,  scholar,  premier  and 
statesman,  born  in  the  middle  and  most  fortunate  level  of 
English  social  life,  educated  at  Eton  and  at  Oxford,  in  the 
very  splendor  of  his  elevation  a  commoner  still,  versatile, 
brilliant,  a  man  of  letters  and  critic  of  the  classics,  a  defen- 
der of  the  Christian  faith,  and  now  the  head  of  the  British 


Introduction.  v 

government,  whom  the  Queen  cannot  but  beg  accept  its 
leadership,  he  typifies  the  fullness  of  the  success  of  the 
highest  English  ambition  in  the  arena  of  public  life,  How 
worthy  of  that  eminence,  how  wide  his  research,  how  large 
his  humanity,  how  clear  his  reasoning  and  statement,  how 
elevated  his  thought,  how  refined  his  discourse,  and  what 
truth,  duty,  liberty,  Christianity,  government,  knowledge, 
faith,  conscience,  and  all  the  moral  foundations  mean  to 
such  a  man  —  what  expression  they  find  upon  his  lips  — 
and  how  great  to  him  and  in  him  is  the  might  of  right, 
the  following  pages  will  help  to  show.  If  they  do  not 
suggest  the  diamond  flash  of  genius,  they  do  suggest  the 
refined  gold  of  consummate  character  and  talents. 

J.  D.  L. 
HINGHAM,  May  4th,  1880. 


WILLIAM  Ef  ART  GLADSTONE,  H.P.D.C.  ETC. 


WILLIAM  Ewart  Gladstone  —  orator,  financier, 
man  of  letters,  statesman  — was  born  in  Liver- 
pool, England,  on  the  2gth  of  December,  1809.  His 
father,  John  Gladstone  —  a  self-made  man  whose  re- 
markable career  raised  him,  in  after  years,  to  the 
baronetcy  —  was  the  son  of  a  corn-merchant  of  Leith, 
near  Edinburgh  ;  and  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  the 
original  spelling  of  the  name  was  Gladstanes,  or  Gled- 
stanes,  from  the  Scottish  gled,  meaning  "  a  hawk,"  and 
stanes,  which  signifies  "  rocks."  His  mother,  the  daugh- 
ter of  Mr.  Andrew  Robertson  of  Stornoway,  is  de- 
scribed by  one  who  knew  her  intimately  as  "  a  lady  of 
very  great  accomplishments  ;  of  fascinating  manners  ; 
of  commanding  presence  and  high  intellect."  Certain 
writers  upon  genealogy  connect  the  marriage  of  John 
Gladstone  with  Miss  Robertson  to  a  royal  descent 


viii  William  Ewart  Gladstone. 

from  Henry  III.  of  England  and  Robert  Bruce  of 
Scotland;  but  the  illustrious  son  would  claim  for  the 
Gladstone  family  no  greater  honor  than  that  of  having 
risen,  by  energy,  industry  and  native  force  of  character, 
from  the  ranks  of  the  so-called  middle  class  to  the 
highest  positions  of  public  esteem.  "  I  know  not,"  he 
says,  "  why  commerce  in  England  should  not  have  its 
old  families,  rejoicing  to  be  connected  with  commerce 
from  generation  to  generation.  I  think  it  a  subject  of 
sorrow,  and  almost  of  scandal,  when  those  families  who 
have  either  acquired  or  recovered  station  and  wealth 
through  commerce,  turn  their  backs  upon  it,  and  seem 
to  be  ashamed  of  it.  It  certainly  is  not  so  with  my 
brother  or  with  me.  His  sons  are  treading  in  his  steps, 
and  one  of  my  sons,  I  rejoice  to  say,  is  treading  in  the 
steps  of  my  father  and  my  brother."  Of  his  Scotch 
descent,  he  says  : 

"  If  Scotland  is  not  ashamed  of  her  sons,  her  sons 
are  not  ashamed  of  Scotland ;  and  the  memory  of  the 
parents  to  whom  I  owe  my  being  combines  with  various 
other  considerations  to  make  me  glad  and  thankful  to 
remember  that  the  blood  which  runs  in  my  veins  is 
exclusively  Scottish." 

When  only  twelve  years  of  age,  the  bright,  precocious 
boy,  would  discuss  with  his  father  the  public  questions 
of  the  day ;  and  the  great  conservative  leader,  George 
Canning,  a  frequent  visitor  in  those  days  at  the 
Gladstone  mansion,  exerted  not  a  little  influence  in  the 
formation  of  his  early  political  principles.  In  the  fall 
of  182 1  he  entered  Eton,  and  his  six  years  of  faithful, 
earnest  study  here,  laid  the  foundation  of  that  classical 
knowledge  for  which  he  has  since  become  so  renowned. 


William  Eivart  Gladstone.  ix 

Even  his  boyish  contributions  to  the  Eton  Miscellany 
seemed  to  foretell  the  coining  man,  and  it  is  extremely 
interesting  to  trace  the  rapid  unfolding  of  his  mental 
powers  during  these  scholastic  years.  In  1829  he  went 
to  Christ  University,  Oxford,  where  he  was  made  a 
student  on  the  foundation.  His  University  life  served 
to  strengthen  and  confirm  his  conservative  principles. 
"  Perhaps  it  was  my  own  fault,"  he  says,  "  but  I  did  not 
learn,  when  at  Oxford,  that  which  I  have  learned  since, 
viz.,  to  set  a  due  value  on  the  imperishable  and  the 
inestimable  principles  of  human  liberty.  The  temper 
which  I  think  too  much  prevailed  at  that  time  in 
academic  circles  was,  that  liberty  was  regarded  with 
jealousy,  and  fear  could  not  be  wholly  dispensed 
with." 

When,  however,  in  1831  the  young  collegiate  gradu- 
ated double  first-class,  he  had  won  the  highest  honors 
attainable  at  the  University,  and  acquired  a  tenacity 
of  religious  principle  that  no  temptation,  could  un- 
dermine. His  conscientiousness  was  so  remarkable 
that,  Kinglake  says,  "it  was  believed  that  if  he  were 
to  commit  even  a  little  sin,  or  to  imagine  an  evil 
thought,  he  would  instantly  arraign  himself  before 
the  dread  tribunal  which  awaited  him  within  his  own 
bosom ;  and  that,  his  intellect  being  subtle  and  micro- 
scopic, and  delighting  in  casuistry  and  exaggeration,  he 
would  be  likely  to  give  his  soul  a  very  harsh  trial,  and 
treat  himself  as  a  great  criminal  for  faults  too  minute 
to  be  visible  to  the  naked  eyes  of  a  layman." 

At  the  close  of  his  University  career  he  travelled 
for  a  few  months  upon  the  Continent,  spending  the 
greater  portion  of  his  time  in  Italy.  This  was  in 


x  William  Ewart  Gladstone. 

^832,  a  year  memorable  in  the  Parliamentary  history 
of  England  for  the  passage  of  the  famous  Reform 
Bill :  and  it  was  upon  the  urgent  request  of  the 
Duke  of  Newcastle,  that  in  September  of  that  year, 
young  Gladstone  returned  from  the  Continent  to  con- 
test the  representation  of  Newark.  He  was  a  total 
stranger  to  the  electors,  but  it  was  not  long  before  he 
won  great  popularity.  One  who  remembers  him  well 
at  this  period  describes  him  as  a  young  man  of  most 
attractive  bearing.  His  broad  intellectual  forehead, 
large  dark  eyes,  •  and  thoughtful,  earnest  expression 
prepossessed  every  one  in  his  favor :  and  his  oratory 
was  at  once  so  eloquent,  so  vigorous,  and  so  strikingly 
in  contrast  with  his  youthful  appearance  that  his  age 
was  a  constant  matter  of  doubt.  He  was  only  twenty- 
two,  at  the  time  when  he  made  his  first  election  ad- 
dress, and  when,  the  following  year,  the  successful 
candidate  took  his  seat  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
he  was  called  by  the  opposite  party  the  "boy,"  from 
Newark.  From  the  delivery  of  his  maiden  speech, 
however,  Mr.  Gladstone  seems  to  have  won  great  favor 
in  Parliament.  Whenever  he  spoke  the  other  members 
knew  he  had  something  worth  the  saying;  and  his 
modest  demeanor,  eloquent  words,  and  earnest  manner 
always  commanded  a  hearing. 

He  was  soon  well  known  as  the  "rising  hope  of 
the  stern,  unbending  Tories,"  and  when,  in  1834,  Sir 
Robert  Peel  became  Prime  Minister  the  young  member 
accepted  from  him  the  office  of  Junior  Lord  of  the 
Treasury.  In  1835,  Mr.  Gladstone  was  promoted  to 
the  office  of  Under-Secretary  for  the  Colonies,  and  it 
was  through  him  that  the  bill,  containing  so  many 


William  Ewart  Gladstone.  xi 

humane  provisions  for  the  carriage  of  passengers  in 
merchant  vessels,  was  presented  to  Parliament  and 
passed. 

In  1839,  Mr.  Gladstone  was  married  to  Miss  Cathe- 
rine Glynne,  daughter  of  Sir  Stephen  Richard  Glynne 
of  Hawarden  Castle,  Flintshire.  The  practical  philan- 
thropy of  Mrs.  Gladstone  has  won  for  her  a  name 
almost  as  widely  known  as  that  of  her  distinguished 
husband.  One  of  their  four  sons  is  at  present  rector 
of  Hawarden,  and  another  is  a  member  of  the  Legis- 
lature. Of  their  four  daughters,  three  are  now  living, 
and  the  youngest  bears  the  name  of  her  father's  sister 
Helen. 

Upon  the  defeat  and  resignation  of  the  Peel  ministry, 
Mr.  Gladstone  retired  with  his  chief;  but  as  member 
from  Newark  he  still  exerted  a  strong  influence  in  the 
House,  and  was  numbered  among  the  most  able  and 
brilliant  leaders  of  the  so-called  Opposition  party. 
When  in  1841,  Sir  Robert  Peel  returned  to  power, 
Mr.  Gladstone  was  sworn  a  member  of  the  Privy 
Council  and  appointed  Vice-President  of  the  Board  of 
Trade,  and  Master  of  the  Mint.  Those  who  had 
known  Mr.  Gladstone  only  as  a  brilliant  orator  and 
abstruse  scholar,  were  wholly  unprepared  for  the  finan- 
cial talent  he  displayed  while  holding  these  responsible 
offices.  But  Sir  Robert  Peel,  long  before  the  abroga- 
tion of  the  Corn*  Laws,  had,  with  that  keen  insight  of 
character  for  which  he  was  so  remarkable,  noted  the 
practical  ability  and  business  tact  of  Mr.  Gladstone. 
During  the  memorable  decade  from  1841  to  1850,  there 
was  ample  opportunity  for  the  exercise  of  these  invalu- 
able gifts,  and  the  Revised  Tariff  Scheme,  as  will  be 


xii  William  Ewart  Gladstone. 

remembered,  was  largely  the  work  of  Mr.  Gladstone. 
True  to  his  own  convictions  of  right  and  wrong,  he 
upheld  the  Repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws,  although  by  so 
doing  he  showed  to  the  world  a  complete  reversal  of 
past  policy,  and  severed  long  cherished  political  and 
personal  friendships.  Upon  the  failure  of  the  Irish 
Question  Sir  Robert  Peel  and  his  constituents  ten- 
dered their  resignation ;  and  it  was  not  until  1847  that 
Mr.  Gladstone  again  appeared  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. His  action  upon  the  Maynooth  Question,  a 
few  years  previous,  as  well  as  the  resignation  of  his 
seat  for  Newark  in  1846,  showed  in  a  striking  manner 
the  conscientiousness  of  the  man  destined  to  be  a 
political  rather  than  a  party  leader. 

During  all  these  busy  years  of  public  life,  Mr.  Glad- 
stone was  diligently  pursuing  his  Homeric  studies,  as 
well  as  furnishing  frequent  contributions  to  the  British 
periodicals.  How  he  could  find  time  to  accomplish 
such  a  vast  amount  of  literary  work  is  a  mystery ;  but 
as  some  one  has  remarked,  "  he  was  always  an  early 
man,  and  arranged  his  affairs  by  strict  rule  and  method." 
In  Gleanings  of  Past  Years,  recently  compiled  in  seven 
volumes,  we  have  the  bulk  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  miscella- 
neous writings:  but  his  Studies  on  Homer  and  the 
Homeric  Age,  Church  Principles  and  other  essays  of  a 
strictly  controversial  and  classical  kind  are  not  included 
in  these  volumes.  • 

It  is  better  to  hear  his  speeches  than  to  read  them, 
for  his  rich,  full,  sonorous  voice,  clearly  interprets  those 
long  periods  that  seem  a  little  involved  in  the  reading ; 
and  his  intense  earnestness,  his  copious  and  inexhaus- 
tible flow  of  language,  his  wonderful  argumentative 


William  Ewart  Gladstone.  xiii 

abilities,  give  him   an   irresistible  power   as   a   public 
speaker  and  Parliamentary  debater. 

While   representing   the   University   of  Oxford,  Mr. 
Gladstone   defended  the   bill  for  the  removal  of  the 
disabilities  of  the  Jews,  and  his  eloquent  speech  against 
the  foreign   policy  of    Lord    Palmerston  in    the  Don 
Pacifico  debates,  produced  a  startling  effect  upon  the 
House.     In  the  ministerial  crisis  of  1852,  he  was  in- 
"vited  by  Lord  Derby  to  form  one  of    his  cabinet,  but 
declined ;  in   December  of  that  year,  the  ministry  was 
overthrown,  and   Mr.  Gladstone  accepted  the  office  of 
Chancellor  of   the  Exchequer,  under  the  Earl  of  Aber- 
deen.    It  was  while  holding  this  office  that  he  intro- 
duced   into   Parliament    his   celebrated    "  budget,"   a 
series   of  addresses  which  were   pronounced  by  Lord 
Russell  "  to  contain  the  ablest  expositions  of   the  true 
principles   of    finance   ever   delivered    by  an    English 
statesman."   When  in  1855  Lord  Palmerston  succeeded 
the  Earl  of  Aberdeen  as    Premier,  Mr.  Gladstone  re- 
tained his  office ;  but  he  soon  resigned  in  consequence 
of  Lord  Palmerston's   action   concerning  a  motion  of 
inquiry  into  the  conduct  of  the  Crimean  war.     In  1858 
during  the  second  accession  of  Lord  Derby  to  power, 
Mr.   Gladstone  was    again   offered,  and  again   he   de- 
clined, the  office  of  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.     He 
however  accepted  an  appointment  as  Lord  High  Com- 
missioner Extraordinary  to    the  Ionian    Islands ;    and 
upon.  Lord  Palmerston's    return  to  office  in  1859,  he 
became,   for  the   third   time,   Chancellor    of    the   Ex- 
chequer.    Since  that   period  Mr.  Gladstone  has  been 
ranked  among  the  advanced  Liberals.     At  the  election 
of  1865,  he  was  rejected  by  the  University  of  Oxford, 


xiv  William  Ewart  Gladstone. 

but  returned  for  South  Lancashire ;  and  after  the 
death  of  Lord  Palmerston,  which  occurred  that  same 
year,  he  became  the  leader  of  the  House  of  Commons. 
Upon  the  defeat  of  the  Reform  Bill  of  1866,  Mr.  Glad- 
stone and  his  colleagues  resigned,  and  a  new  ministry 
was  formed  by  Lord  Derby  and  Mr.  Disraeli.  In 
December,  of  1868,  this  ministry  resigned,  and  Mr. 
Gladstone  was  elected  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury  and 
Prime  Minister.  The  succeeding  six  years  have  been 
called  the  "  Golden  Age  of  Liberalism,"  and  among 
the  many  important  measures  carried  through  Parlia- 
ment during  this  period  were  the  Disestablishment  of 
the  Irish  Church,  in  1869  ;  the  Irish  Land  Bill  in  1870 ; 
the  abolishment,  by  royal  warrant  of  the  purchase  of 
commissions  ,in  the  army  in  1871;  the  settlement  of 
difficulties  with  the  United  States  by  the  Geneva  Con- 
ference; the  abolition  of  confiscation  in  English  penal 
law,  together  with  numerous  other  reforms  in  legal 
administration. 

In  1873,  upon  the  defeat  of  the  bill  for  the  reform 
of  university  education  in  Ireland  Mr.  Gladstone  re- 
signed, and  the  Queen  called  upon  Mr.  Disraeli  to 
form  a  new  ministry.  This,  the  latter  declared  him- 
self unwilling  if  not  unable  to  do  under  the  existing 
circumstances,  and  Mr.  Gladstone  with  his  colleagues 
accordingly  returned  to  their  posts  ;  on  January  twenty- 
fourth  of  the  following  year,  Mr.  Gladstone  unexpect- 
edly announced  the  dissolution  of  Parliament,  giving  as 
his  reason  that  the  government  felt  its  power  ebbing. 
On  February  seventeenth  he  resigned,  and  Mr.  Disraeli 
accepted  the  Premiership. 

The  history  of  the  succeeding  six  years,  the  Vatican 


William  Eivart  Gladstone.  xv 

decrees,  the  Eastern  question,  the  controversies  concern- 
ing foreign  policy,  are  all  too  fresh  in  the  minds  of  the 
reading  public  to  require  a  recapitulation.  Recent 
events  show  that  the  political  career  of  Mr.  Gladstone 
is  still  at  its  zenith ;  the  enthusiastic  gatherings  through- 
out Scotland  and  England  have  proved  but  an  ear- 
nest of  the  great  Liberal  victory  announced  by  all  the 
electoral  returns.  Mr.  Gladstone  is  again  Prime  Min- 
ister of  England  and  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  — 
the  Tory  Administration  is  a  thing  of  the  past — long 
live  the  Queen  !  and  —  long  live  the  noble  English 
statesman  —  William  Exvart  Gladstone. 

E.  E.  R 


THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 


i. 


Every  generation  of  man  is  a  laborer  for  that  which 
succeeds  it,  and  makes  an  addition  to  that  great  sum- 
total  of  achieved  results,  which  may,  in  commercial 
phrase,  be  called  the  capital  of  the  race.  Of  all  the 
conditions  of  existence  in  which  man  differs  from  the 
brutes  there  is  not  one  of  greater  moment  than  this, 
that  each  one  of  them  commences  life  as  if  he  were 
the  first  of  a  species,  whereas  man  inherits  largely 
from  those  who  have  gone  before.  How  largely,  none 
of  us  can  say ;  but  my  belief  is  that,  as  years  gather 
more  and  more  upon  us,  we  estimate  more  and  more 
highly  our  debt  to  preceding  ages.  If  on  the  one  hand 

13 


M  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

that  debt  is  capable  of  being  exaggerated  or  misappre- 
hended—  if  arguments  are  sometimes  strangely  used 
which  would  imply  that,  because  they  have  done  much, 
we  ought  to  do  nothing  more,  yet,  on  the  other  hand, 
it  is  no  less  true  that  the  obligation  is  one  so  vast  and 
manifold  that  it  can  never  as  a  whole  be  adequately 
measured.  It  is  not  only  in  possessions,  available  for 
use,  enjoyment  and  security  ;  it  is  not  only  in  language, 
laws,  institutions,  arts,  religion ;  it  is  not  only  in  what 
we  have,  but  in  what  we  are.  For,  as  character  is 
formed  by  the  action  and  reaction  of  the  human  being 
and  the  circumstances  in  which  he  lives,  it  follows  that 
as  those  circumstances  vary,  he  alters  too,  and  he 
transmits  a  modified  — it  ought  to  be  also  an  enlarged 
and  expanding  —  nature  onwards  in  his  turn  to  his 
posterity,  under  that  mysterious  law  which  establishes 
between  every  generation  and  Its  predecessors  a  moral 
as  well  as  a  physical  association. 


II. 


The  progress  of  mankind  is,  upon  the  whole,  a 
chequered  and  intercepted  progress ;  and  even  where 
it  is  full-formed,  still,  just  as  in  the  individual,  youth 
has  charms  that  maturity  under  an  inexorable  law  must 
lose,  so  the  earlier  ages  of  the  world  will  ever  continue 
to  delight  and  instruct  us  by  beauties  that  are  exclu- 
sively or  peculiarly  their  own. 


PROGRESS.  15 

Again,  it  would  seem  as  though  this  progress  (and 
here  is  a  chastening  and  a  humbling  thought,)  were  a 
progress  of  mankind,  and  not  of  the  individual  man  ; 
for  it  seems  to  be  quite  clear  that  whatever  be  the  com- 
parative greatness  of  the  race  now  and  in  its  infant  or 
early  stages,  what  maybe  called  the  normal  specimens, 
so  far  as  they  have  been  made  known  to  us,  either 
through  external  form  or  through  the  works  of  the  in- 
tellect, have  tended  rather  to  dwindle — or  at  least  to 
diminish,  than  to  grow  in  the  highest  elements  of  great- 
ness. 

But  the  exceptions  at  which  these  remarks  have 
glanced,  neither  destroy  nor  materially  weaken  the 
profound  moment  of  the  broad  and  universal  canon, 
that  every  generation  of  men  as  they  traverse  the  vale 
of  life  are  bound  to  accumulate,  and  in  diverse  manners 
do  accumulate  new  treasures  for  the  race,  and  leave  the 
world  richer,  on  their  departure,  for  the  advantage  of 
their  descendants,  than  on  their  entrance  they  them- 
selves had  found  it. 


III. 


The  Greeks  had  the  very  largest  ideas  upon  the 
training  of  man,  and  produced  specimens  of  our  kind 
with  gifts  that  have  never  been  surpassed.  But  the  na- 
ture of  man,  such  as  they  knew  it,  was  scarcely  at  all 
developed  ;  nay,  it  was  maimed,  in  its  supreme  capaci- 


16  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

ty —  in  its  relations  towards  God.  Hence,  as  in  the 
visions  of  the  prophet,  so  upon  the  roll  of  history,  the 
imposing  fabrics  of  ancient  civilization  never  have  en- 
dured. Greece  has  bequeathed  to  us  her  ever  living 
tongue,  and  the  immortal  productions  of  her  intellect. 
Rome  made  ready  for  Christendom  the  elements  of 
polity  and  law ;  but  the  brilliant  assemblage  of  endow- 
ments which  constitutes  civilization,  having  no  root  in 
itself,  could  not  bear  the  shocks  of  time  and  vicissi- 
tude ;  it  came  and  it  went ;  it  was  seen  and  it  was 
gone. 

We  now  watch  with  a  trembling  hope,  the  course  of 
that  later  and  Christian  civilization  which  arose  out  of 
the  ashes  of  the  old  heathen  world,  and  ask  ourselves 
whether,  like  the  gospel  itself,  so  that  which  the  gospel 
has  wrought  beyond  itself  in  the  manners,  arts,  laws, 
and  institutions  of  men,  is  in  such  manner  salted  with 
perpetual  life,  that  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail 
against  it  ?  Will  the  civilization,  which  was  springing 
upwards  from  the  days  of  Charlemagne,  and  which 
now  over  the  face  of  Europe  and  America,  seeking  to 
present  to  us  in  bewildering  conflict  the  mingled  signs 
of  decrepitude  and  of  vigor,  perish  like  its  older  types, 
and  like  them  be  known  thereafter  only  in  its  frag- 
ments ;  or  does  it  bear  a  charmed  life,  and  will  it  give 
shade  from  the  heat  and  shelter  from  the  storm  to  all 
generations  of  man. 

In  any  answer  to  such  a  question,  it  would  perhaps 


PROGRESS.  17 

be  easier  to  say  what  would  not  than  what  would  be 
involved.  But  some  things  we  may  observe  which  may 
be  among  the  material  of  a  reply. 

The  arts  of  war  are  now  so  allied  with  those  of 
peace,  that  barbarism,  once  so  terrible,  is  reduced  to 
physical  impotence  ;  and  what  civilized  man  has  had  the 
wit  to  create,  he  has  also  the  strength  to  defend.  Thus 
one  grand  destructive  agency  is  paralyzed.  Time,  in- 
deed, is  the  great  destroyer ;  but  his  power,  too,  is 
greatly  neutralized  by  printing,  by  commerce  which 
lays  the  foundation  of  friendship  among  nations,  by 
ease  of  communication  which  binds  men  together,  by 
that  diffusion  of  intelligence  which  multiplies  the  nat- 
ural guardians  of  civilizations.  These  are  perhaps  not 
merely  isolated  phenomena.  Perhaps  they  are  but 
witnesses,  and  but  a  few  among  many  witnesses,  to  the 
vast  change  which  has  been  wrought  since  the  advent 
of  our  Lord  in  the  state  of  man.  Perhaps  they  re- 
echo to  us  the  truth  that  apart  from  sound  and  sure 
relations  to  its  Maker,  the  fitful  efforts  of  mankind  must 
needs  be  worsted  in  the  conflict  with  chance  and 
change ;  but  that  when  by  the  dispensation  of  Chris- 
tianity the  order  of  our  moral  nature  was  restored, 
when  the  rightful  King  had  once  more  taken  his  place 
upon  his  throne,  then  indeed,  civilization  might  come 
to  have  a  meaning  and  a  vitality  such  as  had  before 
been  denied  it.  Then,  at  length,  it  had  obtained  the 
key  to  all  the  mysteries  of  the  nature  of  man,  to  all 


1 8  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

the  anomalies  of  its  condition.  Then  it  had  obtained 
the  ground  plan  of  that  nature  in  all  its  fulness,  which 
before  had  been  known  only  in  remnants  or  in  frag- 
ments ;  fragments  of  which,  even  as  now  in  the  toppling 
remains  of  some  ancient  church  or  castle,  the  true 
grandeur  and  the  etherial  beauty  were  even  the  more 
conspicuous  because  of  the  surrounding  ruins.  But 
fragments  still,  and  fragments  only,  until,  by  the  bring- 
ing of  life  and"  immortality  to  light  the  parts  of  our 
nature  were  re-united,  its  harmony  was  reestablished, 
the  riddle  of  life,  heretofore  unsolved,  was  at  length 
read  as  a  discipline,  and  so  obtained  its  just  interpre- 
tation. All  that  had  before  seemed  idle  conflict, 
wasted  energy,  barren  effort,  was  seen  to  be  but  the 
preparation  for  a  glorious  future ;  and  death  itself 
instead  of  extinguishing  the  last  hopes  of  man,  became 
the  means  and  the  pledge  of  his  perfection. 


IV. 


As  when  some  splendid  edifice  is  to  be  reared,  its 
diversified  materials  are  brought  from  this  quarter  and 
from  that,  according  as  nature  and  man  favor  their 
production,  so  did  the  wisdom  of  God,  with  slow  but 
ever  sure  device,  cause  to  ripen,  amidst  the  several 
races  best  adapted  for  the  work,  the  several  component 
parts  of  the  noble  fabric  of  a  Christian  manhood  and 
a  Christian  civilization.  "  The  kings  of  Tarshish  and 


FAME.  19 

the  isles  shall  bring  presents :  the  kings  of  Sheba  and 
Seba  shall  offer  gifts."  Every  worker  was  with  or 
without  his  knowledge  and  his  will,  to  contribute  to 
the  work. 


V. 


We  must  not  expect  too  much.  We  must  not  look 
for  miracles,  but  what  we  may  reasonably  look  for,  is 
progress,  and  progress  in  the  adoption  of  principles 
which  are  recommended  not  merely  by  theory  —  not 
merely  by  some  apparently  plausible  grounds  of  rea- 
son, but  by  the  surest  investigations  we  can  make, 
and  by  the  still  sweet  testimony  of  long  experience. 


VI. 


The  hope  of  an  enduring  fame  is,  without  doubt,  a 
powerful  incentive  to  virtuous  action,  and  you  may 
suffer  it  to  float  before  you  as  a  vision  of  refreshment, 
second  always  and  second  in  the  long  interval  to 
your  conscience  and  the  will  of  God.  For  an  endur- 
ing fame  is  one  stamped  by  the  judgment  of  the  future, 
that  future  which  dispels  illusions,  and  smashes  idols 
into  dust.  Little  of  what  is  criminal,  little  of  what  is 
idle,  can  endure  even  the  first  touch  of  the  ordeal ; 
it  seems  as  though  this  purging  power,  following  at 


20  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

the  heels    of  man  and  trying  his  work,  were  a  witness 
and  a  harbinger  of  the  great  and  final  account. 

So  then  the  thirst  of  an  enduring  fame  is  near  akin 
to  the  love  of  true  excellence.  But  the  fame  of  the 
moment  is  a  dangerous  possession,  and  a  bastard 
motive  ;  and  he  who  does  his  acts  in  order  that  the 
echo  of  them  may  come  back  as  soft  music  in  his 
ears,  plays  false  to  his  noble  destiny  as  a  Christian 
man,  places  himself  in  continual  danger  of  dallying 
with  wrong,  and  taints  even  his  virtuous  actions  at 
their  source.  Not  the  sublime  words  alone  of  the  Son 
of  God  and  his  apostles,  but  heathenism  too,  even 
while  its  vision  is  limited  to  the  passing  scene,  testi- 
fies with  an  hundred  tongues  that  the  passing  scene 
itself  presents  to  us  virtue  as  an  object,  and  a  moral 
law,  graven  deeply  in  our  whole  nature,  as  a  guide. 
But  now,  when  the  screens  that  so  bounded  human 
vision  have  been  removed,  it  were  sad  indeed,  and  not 
more  sad  than  shameful,  if  that  being  should  be 
content  to  live  for  the  opinion  of  the  moment  who 
has  immortality  for  his  inheritance.  He  that  never 
dies,  can  he  not  afford  to  wait  patiently  a  while  ? 
And  can  he  not  let  Faith,  which  interprets  the  pres- 
ent, also  guarantee  the  future  ?  Nor  are  there  any 
two  habits  of  mind  more  distinct  than  that  which 
chooses  success  for  its  aim  and  covets  after  popu- 
larity, and  that,  on  the  other  hand,  which  values  and 
defers  to  the  judgments  of  our  fellow-men  as  helps. 


FAME.  21 

VII. 

The  mountain-tops  of  Scotland  behold  on  every 
side  of  them  the  witness,  and  many  a  one  of  what 
were  once  her  morasses  and  her  moorlands,  now  blos- 
soming as  the  rose,  carries  on  its  face  the  proof,  that 
it  is  in  man  and  not  in  his  circumstances  that  the 
secret  of  his  destiny  resides.  Could  you  with  the 
bodily  eye  see  the  moments  as  they  fly,  you  would 
see  them  all  pass  by  you,  as  the  bee  that  has  rifled 
the  heather,  charged  with  the  promise,  or  it  may  be 
with  the  menace,  of  the  future.  In  many  things  it  is 
wise  to  believe  before  experience  —  until  you  may 
know ;  and  believe  me  when  I  tell  you  that  the 
thrift  of  time  will  repay  you  in  after  life,  with  an 
usury  of  profit  beyond  your  most  sanguine  dreams, 
and  that  the  waste  of  it  will  make  you  dwindle,  alike 
in  intellectual  and  in  moral  stature,  beyond  your 
darkest  reckonings. 

VIII. 

Man  is  to  be  trained  chiefly  by  studying  and  by 
knowing  man;  and  we  are  prepared  for  knowing  man 
in  life  by  learning  him  first  in  books,  much  as  we 
are  taught  to  draw  from  nature.  But  if  man  is  to  be 
studied  in  books,  he  will  best  be  studied  in  such 
books  as  present  him  to  us  in  the  largest,  strongest, 


22  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

simplest,  in  a  word,  the  most  typical  forms.  These 
forms  are  principally  found  among  the  ancients. 

Nor  can  the  study  of  the  ancients  be  dissociated 
from  the  study  of  their  languages.  There  is  a  pro- 
found relation  between  thought  and  the  investiture 
which  it  chooses  for  itself  ;  and  it  is  as  a  general  rule, 
most  true,  that  we  cannot  know  men  or  nations  unless 
we  know  their  tongue. 

Diversity  of  language  was,  like  labor,  a  temporal 
penalty  inflicted  on  our  race  for  sin ;  but  being,  like 
labor,  originally  penal,  like  labor  it  becomes,  by  the 
ordinance  of  God,  a  fertile  source  of  blessing  to  those 
who  use  it  aright.  It  is  the  instrument  of  thought, 
but  it  is  not  a  blind  or  dead  instrument ;  it  is  like 
the  works  in  metal  that  Daedalus  and  Vulcan  were 
fabled  to  produce ;  and  even  as  the  limping  deity  was 
supported  in  his  walk  by  his  nymphs  of  so-called  brass, 
in  like  manner  language  reacts  upon  and  bears  up  the 
thoughts  from  which  it  springs,  and  comes  to  take 
rank  among  the  most  effective  powers  for  the  disci- 
pline of  the  mind. 


IX. 


The  question  how  far  endowments  for  education  are 
to  be  desired  is  beset  with  peculiar  difficulty.  Where 
they  are  small  and  remote  from  public  observation, 
they  tend  rapidly  to  torpor.  They  are  admirable  when 


EDUCATION.  23 

they  come  in  aid  of  a  good-will  already  existing,  but 
where  the  good-will  does  not  exist  beforehand,  they 
are  as  likely  to  stifle  as  to  stimulate  its  growth.  They 
make  a  high  cultivation  accessible  to  the  youth  who 
desires  it,  and  who  could  not  otherwise  attain  his 
worthy  and  noble  end ;  on  the  other  hand,  they  remove 
the  spur  by  which  Providence  neutralizes  the  indo- 
lence of  man,  and  moves  him  to  supply  his  wants. 
If  the  teacher,  when  unendowed,  may  be  constrained 
to  forego  all  high  training  for  students,  and  to  provide 
only  for  their  lower  and  more  immediate  demands, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  teacher  when  endowed,  and  in 
so  far  as  he  is  endowed,  is  deprived  of  the  aid  which 
personal  interest  and  private  necessities  can  lend  to 
the  sense  of  duty,  and  he  may  be  tempted  to  neglect 
or  to  minister  but  feebly  to  the  culture  of  his  pupils, 
either  in  its  higher  or  in  its  lower  sense. 

And  it  is  never  to  be  forgotten,  that  amidst  all  the 
kinds  of  exertion  incident  to  our  human  state,  there 
is  none  more  arduous,  none  more  exhausting,  than 
the  work  of  teaching  worthily  performed.  Some  men, 
indeed,  possess  in  this  department  a  princely  gift,  which 
operates  like  a  charm  upon  the  young,  and  they  follow 
such  an  one  as  soldiers  follow  their  leader  when  he 
waves  the  banner  of  their  native  land  before  their 
eyes.  But  such  men  are  rare  ;  they  are  not  less  rare 
than  are  great  men  in  any  other  walk  of  life.  Speak- 
ing generally,  the  work  of  teaching  is,  even  when 


24  THE  MIGHT  OF   RIGHT. 

pursued  with  the  whole  heart,  even  when  felt  to  be 
an  absorbing  work,  but  moderately  successful;  while 
he  who  teaches  with  half  his  heart  does  not  really 
teach  at  all. 

There  are,  however,  considerations  which  tell  on  the 
other  side.  The  solidity  of  establishments  founded 
on  old  endowments  supplies  a  basis  on  which  there 
are  gradually  formed  a  mass  of  continuous  traditions, 
always  powerful  and  generally  noble ;  and  the  very 
name  of  them,  as  it  is  handed  on  from  generation  to 
generation,  becomes  a  watchword  at  once  of  affection- 
ate remembrances,  and  of  lofty  aspirations.  They  lay 
hold  of  the  young  by  those  properties  which  are  the 
finest  characteristics  of  youth ;  and  the  boy  when  he 
is  enrolled  as  a  member  of  one  of  these  institutions, 
feels  that  he  is  admitted  to  a  share  in  a  great  inheri- 
tance, and  instinctively  burns  to  be  worthy  of  the 
badge  he  has  assumed. 

Again,  in  a  country  which  is  both  free  and  wealthy, 
all  endowed  institutions  are  open  to  the  competition 
of  the  unendowed,  and  few  establishments  are  so 
amply  endowed  as  not  to  leave  room  for  the  opera- 
tion on  the  teacher  of  those  ordinary  motives  which 
prompt  him  to  better  his  condition. 


The   proper  work   of  Universities,  could   they   but 


EDUCATION.  25 

perform  it,  while  they  guard  and  cultivate  all  ancient 
truth,  is  to  keep  themselves  in  the  foremost  ranks 
of  modern  discovery,  to  harmonize  continually  the 
inherited  with  the  acquired  wealth  of  mankind,  and 
to  give  a  charter  to  freedom  of  discussion,  while  they 
maintain  the  reasonable  limits  of  the  domain  of  tra- 
dition and  of  authority. 


XL 


There  is  something  noble  in  a  jealousy  of  authority, 
when  the  intention  is  to  substitute  for  it  a  strong  per- 
sistent course  of  mental  labor.  Such  labor  involves 
sacrifice,  and  sacrifice  can  dignify  much  error.  But 
unhappily  the  rejection  of  authority  is  too  often  a  cover 
for  indolence  as  well  as  wantonness  of  mind,  and  the 
rejection  of  solid  and  valuable  authority  is  avenged  by 
lapse  into  the  most  ignoble  servitude.  Those  who 
think  lightly  of  the  testimony  of  the  ages,  the  tradition 
of  their  race,  which  at  all  events  keeps  them  in  com- 
munion with  it,  are  often  found  the  slaves  of  Mr.  A., 
or  Mr.  B.,  of  their  newspaper,  or  of  their  club.  In  a 
time  of  much  mental  movement,  men  are  apt  to  think 
that  it  must  be  right  with  them,  provided  only  that  they 
move ;  and  they  are  slow  to  distinguish  between  prog- 
ress and  what  is  running  to  and  fro.  If  it  be  a  glory  of 
the  age  to  have  discovered  the  unsuspected  width  of 
the  sway  of  law  in  external  nature,  let  it  crown  the 


26  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

exploit  by  cultivating  a  severer  study  than  is  commonly 
in  use,  of  the  law  weighty  beyond  all  others,  the  law 
which  fixes,  so  to  speak,  the  equation  of  the  mind  of 
man  in  the  orbit  appointed  for  the  consummation  of 
his  destiny. 

XII. 

.  There  is  no  point  at  which  we  may  not  throw  back 
the  boundary,  and  enlarge  the  sphere  of  direct  knowl- 
edge, and  of  conviction  and  action  founded  thereupon. 
There  is  no  point  at  which  we  ought  not  to  so  throw 
it  back,  according  to  our  means  and  opportunities. 
Life  should  be  spent  in  a  strong,  continuous  effort  to 
improve  the  apparatus  for  the  guidance  of  life,  both  in 
thought  and  action.  We  must  ever  be  trying  to  know 
more  and  more  what  are  the  things  to  be  believed  and 
done. 

In  beseeching  the  young  to  study  the  application  to 
their  daily  life  of  that  principle  of  order  which  both  en- 
genders diligence  and  strength  of  will,  and  likewise  so 
greatly  multiplies  their  power,  I  am  well  assured  that 
they  will  find  this  to  be  of  not  only  an  intellectual  but 
a  moral  exercise. 

Every  real  and  searching  effort  at  self-improvement 
is  of  itself  a  lesson  of  profound  humility.  For  we  can- 
not move  a  step  without  learning  and  feeling  the 
waywardness,  the  weakness,  the  vacillation  of  our  move- 


EDUCATION.  27 

ments,  or  without  desiring  to  be  set  upon  the  Rock 
that  is  higher  than  ourselves.  Nor,  again,  is  it  likely 
that  the  self-denial  and  self-discipline  which  these 
efforts  undoubtedly  involve  will  often  be  cordially  under- 
gone, except  by  those  who  elevate  and  extend  their 
vision  beyond  the  narrow  scope  of  the  years  —  be  they 
what  we  admit  to  be  few,  or  what  we  think  to  be 
many  —  that  are  prescribed  for  our  career  on  earth. 
An  untiring  sense  of  duty,  an  active  consciousness  of 
the  perpetual  presence  of  Him  who  is  its  author  and 
its  law,  and  a  lofty  aim  beyond  the  grave  —  these  are 
the  best  and  most  efficient  parts,  in  every  sense,  of  that 
apparatus  wherewith  we  should  be  armed,  when  with 
full  purpose  of  heart  we  address  ourselves  to  the  life- 
long work  of  self-improvement. 

XIII. 

The  most  distinguished  professional  men  bear  wit- 
ness with  an  overwhelming  authority,  in  favor  of  a 
course  of  education  in  which  to  train  the  mind  shall  be 
the  first  object,  and  to  stock  it,  the  second^ 

XIV. 

Small  indeed  is  the  number  of  subjects  or  ideas 
which,  in  the  sense  of  absolute  comprehension,  man- 
kind have  ever  comprehended  ;  what  is  given  to  us,  as 


28  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

a  general  rule,  is  comprehension  in  a  degree  —  com- 
prehension by  contact  with  a  subject  at  certain  of  its 
points,  which  in  a  manner  give  the  outline,  as  the 
naturalist  constructs  the  creature  from  the  bone  —  com- 
prehension not  absolute,  but  relative  to  our  state  and 
wants ;  limited,  and  thus  teaching  humility,  but  adequate 
to  establish  reasonable  conclusions,  and  to  work  out 
those  laws  of  probable  evidence  which,  sustained  by 
our  experience  of  their  operation,  fit  it  to  be  the  guide 
of  life.  In  this,  the  old  Christian  reading  of  the  laws, 
of  knowledge,  our  intellectual  discipline  is  everywhere 
intwined  with  moral  teaching,  and  the  employments 
farthest  from  the  direct  subject  matter  of  religion  min- 
ister to  its  highest  purposes,  like  the  Queen  of  the 
South  bringing  her  choicest  gifts  to  the  elect  King  of 
the  people  of  God. 


XV. 


Man  himself  is  the  crowning  wonder  of  creation ; 
the  study  of  his  nature  is  the  noblest  study  that  the 
world  affords ;  and  to  his  advancement  all  undertak- 
ings, all  professions,  all  arts,  all  knowledge,  all  institu- 
tions are  subordinate,  as  means  and  instruments  to 
their  end. 

XVI. 
It  is  not  leisure,  wealth,  and  ease  which  come  to  dis- 


EDUCATION.  29 

port  themselves  as  athletes  in  intellectual  games ;  it  is 
the  hard  hand  of  the  worker,  which  his  yet  stronger  will 
has  taught  to  wield  the  pen  ;  it  is  labor,  gathering  up 
with  infinite  care  and  sacrifice  the  fragments  of  time, 
stealing  them,  many  a  one,  from  rest  and  sleep,  and 
offering  them  up  like  so  many  widow's  mites  in  the 
honest  devotion  of  an  effort  at  self-improvement. 

XVII. 

There  are  those  who  tell  us  that  examinations,  and 
especially  that  competitive  examinations,  are  of  no  real 
value,  that  they  produce  the  pretence  and  not  the 
reality  of  knowledge;  that  they  give  us,  not  solid 
progress,  but  conceit  and  illusion.  I  freely  admit  that 
this  modern  method  is  likely  to  rear,  as  far  as  we  can 
judge,  no  greater  prodigies  of  learning  than  did  the 
simple  and  spontaneous  devotion  of  the  olden  time ; 
perhaps,  if  we  are  to  look  only  at  individual  cases  of 
pre-eminence,  none  so  great.  But  I  say  that  the  true 
way  to  imitate  the  wisdom  of  the  olden  time  is  this  : 
to  watch  the  conditions  of  the  age  in  which  we  live ;  to 
accept  them  thankfully  and  freely,  as  at  once  the  law 
of  Providence  for  our  guidance,  and  the  gift  for  oui 
encouragement;  and  when  we  learn  by  expeiience  that 
the  tools  with  which  other  generations  wrought  are  not 
suited  for  the  work  that  is  given  us  to  do,  then  to  find 
if  we  can,  some  other  tools  which  are. 


30  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  experience  of  half 
a  century,  as  well  in  the  universities  as  elsewhere, 
appears  to  have  shown  that  the  method  of  examina- 
tions is  the  best,  and  perhaps  the  only  method  by 
which,  in  the  England  of  the  nineteenth  century,  any 
due  efficiency  can  be  imparted  to  the  general  business 
of  education.  I  do  not  indeed,  deny  that  a  certain 
trick  or  craft  may  be  practised  in  them ;  that  some  may 
think  more  of  the  manner  of  displaying  their  knowl- 
edge to  a  momentary  advantage,  like  goods  in  a  shop- 
window,  than  of  laying  hold  upon  the  substance.  But 
I  say  that  these  abusive  cases  will  be  the  exceptions, 
not  the  rule.  I  say  that  those  who  so  unjustly  plead 
them  against  the  system  forget  that  this  very  faculty, 
of  the  ready  command  and  easy  use  of  our  knowledge, 
is  in  itself  of  immense  value.  It  means  clear  percep- 
tion. It  means  orderly  arrangement  and  above  all, 
they  forget  what  I  take  to  be  the  specific  and  peculiar 
virtue  of  the  system  of  examinations,  namely  this,  that 
they  require  us  to  concentrate  all  the  faculties  of  the 
mind,  with  all  their  strength,  upon  a  point.  In  and  by 
the  efforts  necessary  for  that  concentration,  the  mind 
itself,  obtaining  at  once  breadth  of  grasp  and  in- 
creased pliability  and  force,  becomes  more  able  to 
grapple  with  great  occasions  in  the  subsequent  experi- 
ence of  life. 

Therefore,  again  I  say  let  us  accept  frankly  and 
cheerfully  the  conditions  of  the  age  in  which  our  lot 


EDUCATION.  3I 

is  cast,  and  let  us  write  among  its  titles  this  —  that  as 
it  is  the  age  of  humane  and  liberal  laws,  the  age  of 
extended  franchises,  the  age  of  warmer  loyalty  and 
more  firmly  established  order,  the  age  of  free  trade, 
the  age  of  steam  and  railways ;  so  it  is  likewise,  even 
if  last  and  least,  the  age  of  examinations.  Let  me 
add,  it  is  the  age  in  which  this  powerful  instrument  of 
good,  formerly  the  exclusive  privilege  of  the  more 
opulent,  has  been  extended  to  the  people.  It  is  a 
system  which,  in  thorough  harmony  with  the  whole 
spirit  of  English  laws  and  institutions,  aims  at  ena- 
bling every  one,  in  every  rank  of  the  social  scale,  the 
lowest  like  the  highest,  to  give  proof  of  what  mettle 
he  is  made,  and  to  turn  to  the  best  account  the  gifts 
with  which,  by  the  bounty  of  his  Heavenly  Father,  his 
mind  has  been  endowed. 

XVIII. 

The  very  novelty  and  freshness  of  knowledge,  in 
ages  just  emerging  from  darkness  and  disorder,  gave 
it  a  powerful  charm  for  the  imagination  over  and  above 
its  hold  upon  the  intellect ;  it  was  pursued  by  a  spon- 
taneous movement  from  within,  with  passion  as  well  as 
with  conviction ;  and  those  who  so  pursue  it  do  not 
need  to  be  goaded  in  their  onward  course ;  their  ser- 
vice is  a  service  of  love,  and  like  the  love  of  youth  for 
maiden,  it  is  its  own  incentive  and  its  own  reward. 


32  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

But  when  society  has  passed  into  what  is  distinct- 
ively, and  in  many  respects  truly,  termed  a  progressive 
state ;  when  the  personal  rights  of  men  are  as  secure 
in  the  outer  world  as  in  the  closet  retirement ;  when  a 
thousand  new  careers  of  external  life  are  opened,  and 
its  attractions  in  a  thousand  forms  are  indefinitely  mul- 
tiplied ;  when  large  numbers  can  engage,  not  merely 
in  labor  for  subsistence,  but  in  the  pursuit  of  wealth  ; 
and  when  a  desire  to  rise  upon  the  social  ladder  takes 
possession  of  whole  classes,  if  not  on  their  own 
behalf,  at  least  on  behalf  of  their  children  ;  then  there 
arises  a  compound  danger.  First,  lest  the  value  of 
knowledge  for  its  own  sake  should  be  wholly  forgotten  ; 
and,  secondly,  lest  even  its  utility  in  innumerable  re- 
spects for  the  comfort  and  advancement  of  life  should 
pass,  in  great  measure,  out  of  view. 

Now,  it  is  in  such  an  age  as  this  that  we  are  living. 
That  same  attraction  of  necessity  of  wages,  which 
takes  the  poorer  child,  either  in  town  or  village,  from 
school  at  too  early  a  period,  is  but  the  exhibition  for 
one  class  of  a  pressure  felt  by  all.  With  the  wealthier 
it  is  pleasure,  with  the  needier  it  is  gain ;  but  all  classes 
and  all  circles  are  alike'in  this,  that  our  youth  are  in  dan- 
ger of  undervaluing  solid  mental  culture,  and  of  either 
neglecting  or  shortening  its  pursuit  by  reason  of  the 
increased  allurements,  or  the  more  urgent  calls  of  the 
outer  sphere  of  life.  Although  knowledge  is  in  so 
many  ways  auxilary  to  art  and  to  commerce,  yet  this  is 


EDUCATION.  33 

a  matter  not  so  palpable  to  the  individual  that  we  can 
rely  on  it  to  enable  him,  as  it  were,  to  speculate  upon  a 
distant  benefit,  which  concerns  others  as  well  as,  or  it 
may  be  more  than,  himself ;  and  to  forego  for  its  sake 
advantages  which  lie  nearer  at  hand,  which  appertain 
directly  to  his  own  career,  and  which  are  on  the  level 
of  every  man's  understanding.  Long,  accordingly, 
after  trade  and  manufactures  had  begun,  one  hundred 
years  ago,  their  upward  spring,  education  and  art 
seemed  rather  to  decline  than  to  advance  among  us. 
At  length  a  day  of  awakening  came.  Christian  phil- 
anthropy, we  may  do  well  to  remember,  was  first  in  the 
field  on  behalf  of  the  masses  of  the  people  ;  but  after 
a  while,  it  found  itself  in  partnership  with  an  enlight- 
ened self-interest  on  the  part  of  individuals,  and  with 
the  political  prudence  of  the  Government.  Now,  for  a 
long  course  of  years,  all  three  have  prosecuted  their 
work  in  remarkable  harmony  one  with  another.  Lone1 

J  O 

may  their  union  continue,  and  its  golden  fruits  teem 
and  glow  over  all  the  surface  of  the  land  ! 

XIX. 

There  are  beautiful  and  famous  passages  in  ancient 
writers  where  statesmen  and  orators  describe  the  refresh- 
ment with  which  literature  had  supplied  them,  amid  the 
cares  of  life  and  the  pressure  of  public  affairs.  With- 
out any  disparagement  to  such  representations,  it  is  a 


34  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

far  more  touching  picture  to  behold  the  laboring  man, 
shut  out  by  no  fault  of  his  own  from  the  occupation 
that  gives  him  bread,  yet  unconquered  in  spirit  and 
resource,  and  turning  to  account  his  vacant  hours  in 
pursuits  which  strengthen  and  enlarge  the  faculties  of 
his  mind. 


XX. 


Although  this  world  embraces  no  more  than  a  lim- 
ited part  of  our  existence,  and  although  it  is  certain 
that  we  ought  to  tread  its  floor  with  an  upward  and 
not  with  a  downward  eye,  yet  sometimes  a  strong  re- 
action from  the  dominion  of  things  visible  and  carnal 
begets  the  opposite  excess.  A  strain  of  language  may 
sometimes  be  heard  among  us  which,  if  taken  strictly, 
would  imply  that  the  Almighty  had  abandoned  the 
earth  and  the  creatures  he  had  made ;  or,  at  the  least, 
that  if  he  retained  any  care  at  all  for  some  portion  of 
those  creatures  while  continuing  to  be  inhabitants  of 
the  world,  it  was  only  care  how  to  take  them  out  of  it. 
It  is  sometimes  said  that  this  world  is  a  world  only  of 
shadows  and  phantoms.  We  may  safely  reply  that, 
whatever  it  is,  a  world  of  shadows  and  of  phantoms  it 
can  never  truly  be  ;  for  by  shadows  and  phantoms  we 
mean  vague  existences,  which  neither  endure  nor  act ; 
creatures  of  the  moment,  which  may  touch  the  fancy, 
but  which  the  understanding  does  not  recognize  ;  pass- 


EDUCATION.  35 

ing  illusions,  without  heralds  before  them,  without 
results  or  traces  after  them.  With  such  a  description 
as  this,  I  say,  our  human  life,  in  whatever  state  or  sta- 
tion, can  never  correspond.  It  may  be  something 
better  than  this ;  it  may  be  something  worse,  but  this  it 
can  never  be.  , 

Our  life  may  be  food  to  us,  or  may,  if  we  will  have 
it  so,  be  poison  ;  but  one  or  the  other  it  must  be. 
Whichever  and  whatever  it  is,  beyond  all  doubt  it  is 
eminently  real.  So  merely  as  the  day  and  the  night 
alternately  follow  one  another,  does  every  day  when  it 
yields  to  darkness,  and  every  night  when  it  passes  into 
dawn,  bear  with  it  its  own  tale  of  the  results  which  it 
has  silently  wrought  upon  each  of  us,  for  evil  or  for 
good.  The  day  of  diligence,  duty,  and  devotion  leaves 
it  richer  than  it  found  us  ;  richer  sometimes,  and  even 
commonly,  in  our  circumstances  ;  richer  always  in  our- 
selves. But  the  day  of  aimless  lethargy,  the  day  of 
passionate  and  rebellous  disorder,  or  of  a  merely  sel- 
fish and  perverse  activity  as  surely  leaves  us  poorer  at 
its  close  than  we  were  at  its  beginning.  The  whole 
experience  of  life,  in  small  things  and  in  great,  what  is 
it  ?  It  is  an  aggregate  of  real  forces,  which  are  always 
acting  upon  us,  we  also  reacting  upon  them.  It  is  in 
the  nature  of  things  impossible  that,  in  their  contact 
with  our  plastic  and  susceptible  natures,  they  should 
leave  us  as  we  were ;  and  to  deny  the  reality  of  their 
daily  and  continual  influence,  merely  because  we  can- 


36  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

not  register  its  results,  as  we  note  the  changes  of  the 
barometer,  from  hour  to  hour,  would  be  just  as  rational 
as  to  deny  that  the  sea  acts  upon  the  beach  because 
the  eye  will  not  tell  us  to-morrow  that  it  has  altered 
from  what  it  has  been  to-day.  If  we  fail  to  measure 
the  results  that  are  thus  hourly  wrought  on  shingle  and 
in  sand,  it  is  not  because  those  results  are  unreal,  but 
because  our  vision  is  too  limited  in  its  powers  to  dis- 
cern them.  When,  instead  of  comparing  day  with  day, 
we  compare  century  with  century,  then  we  may  often 
find  that  land  has  become  sea,  and  sea  has  become 
land.  Even  so  we  can  perceive,  at  least  in  our  neigh- 
bors—  towards  whom  the  eye  is  more  impartial  and 
discerning  than  towards  ourselves  —  that  under  the 
steady  pressure  of  the  experience  of  life,  human  char- 
acters are  continually  being  determined  for  good  or 
evil ;  are  developed,  confirmed,  modified,  altered,  or 
undermined.  It  is  the  office  of  good  sense,  no  less 
than  of  faith  to  realize  this  great  truth  before  we  see 
it,  and  to  live  under  the  conviction,  that  our  life  from 
day  to  day  is  a  true,  powerful,  and  searching  discipline, 
moulding  us  and  making  us  whether  it  be  for  evil  or 
for  good. 

Nor  are  these  real  effects  wrought  by  unreal  instru- 
ments. Life  and  the  world,  their  interests,  their 
careers,  the  varied  gifts  of  our  nature,  the  traditions  of 
our  forefathers,  the  treasures  of  laws,  institutions, 
usages  of  languages,  of  literature,  and  of  art;  all  the 


DISCIPLINE.  37 

beauty,  glory  and  delight  with  which  the  Almighty 
Father  has  clothed  this  earth  for  the  use  and  profit  of 
his  children,  and  which  evil,  though  it  has  defaced  has 
not  been  able  utterly  to  destroy ;  all  these  are  not 
merely  allowable,  but  ordained  and  appointed  instru- 
ments for  the  training  of  mankind.  They  are  instru- 
ments true  and  efficient  in  themselves,  though  without 
doubt  auxiliary  and  subordinate  to  that  highest  instru- 
ment of  all  which  God  has  prepared  to  be  the  means 
of  our  recovery  and  final  weal,  by  the  revelation  of 
himself. 

XXI. 

There  are  always  many  who  even  in  their  tender 
years  are  fighting  with  a  mature  and  manful  courage 
the  battles  of  life.  When  they  feel  themselves  lonely 
amidst  the  crowd,  when  they  are  for  a  moment  dis- 
heartened by  that  difficulty  which  is  the  wide  and  rock- 
ing cradle  of  every  kind  of  excellence — when  they 
are  conscious  of  the  pinch  of  poverty  and  self-denial, 
let  them  be  conscious,  too,  that  a  sleepless  eye  is 
watching  them  from  above,  that  their  honest  efforts 
are  assisted,  their  humble  prayers  are  heard,  and  all 
things  are  working  together  for  their  good.  Is  not 
this  the  life  of  faith,  which  walks  by  your  side  from 
your  rising  in  the  morning  to  your  lying  down  at  night 
—  which  lights  up  for  you  the  cheerless  world,  and 


38  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

transfigures  all   that  you   encounter,  whatever  be   its 
outward  form,  with  hues  brought  down  from  heaven  ? 

XXII. 

Let  it  not  be  thought  that  those  who  are  never  called 
to  suffer  in  respect  to  bodily  wants  therefore  do  not 
suffer  sharply.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  well  established, 
not  only  that  though  the  form  of  sorrow  may  be 
changed  with  a  change  in  the  sphere  of  life,  the  es- 
sence and  power  of  it  remain,  but  also  that  as  that 
sphere  enlarges,  the  capacity  of  suffering  deepens 
along  with  it,  no  less  than  the  opportunities  of  enjoy- 
ment are  multiplied. 

XXIII. 

We  live  as  men,  in  a  labyrinth  of  problems,  and  of 
moral  problems,  from  which  there  is  no  escape  per- 
mitted us.  The  prevalence  of  pain  and  sin,  the  limita- 
tions of  free  will,  approximating  sometimes  to  its  vir- 
tual extinction,  the  mysterious  laws  of  our  independ- 
ence, the  indeterminateness  for  most  or  many  men  of 
the  discipline  of  life,  the  cross  purposes  that  seem  at 
so  many  points  to  traverse  the  dispensations  of  an 
Almighty  benevolence,  can  only  be  encountered  by  a 
large,  an  almost  immeasurable,  suspense  of  judgment 
Solution  for  them  we  have  none. 


BEAUTY.  39 

But  a  scheme  came  eighteen  hundred  years  ago  into 

the  world,  which  is  an  earnest  and  harbinger  of  solu- 

« 

tion  :  which  has  banished  from  the  earth  or  frightened 
into  the  darkness,  many  of  the  foulest  monsters  that 
laid  waste  humanity  ;  which  has  set  up  the  law  of  right 
against  the  rule  of  force ;  which  has  proclaimed,  and 
in  many  particulars  enforced,  the  canon  of  mutual 
love ;  which  has  opened  from  without,  sources  of 
strength  for  poverty  and  weakness,  and  put  a  bit  in 
the  mouth,  and  a  bridle  on  the  neck,  of  pride. 

In  a  word,  this  scheme,  by  mitigating  the  present 
pressure  of  one  and  all  of  these  tremendous  problems, 
has  entitled  itself  to  be  heard  when  it  boldly  assures 
us  that  a  day  will  come,  in  which  we  shall  know  as  we 
are  known,  and  when  their  presence  shall  no  longer 
baffle  the  strong  intellects  and  characters  among  us, 
nor  drive  the  weaker  even  to  despair. 

XXIV. 

Beauty  is  not  an  accident  of  things,  it  pertains  to 
their  essence ;  it  pervades  the  wide  range  of  creation ; 
and,  wherever  it  is  impaired  or  banished,  we  have  in 
this  fact  the  proof  of  the  moral  disorder  which  dis- 
turbs the  world.  Reject,  therefore,  the  false  philoso- 
phy of  those  who  will  ask  what  does  it  matter,  provided 
a  thing  be  useful,  whether  it  be  beautiful  or  not :  and 
say  in  reply  that  we  will  take  one  lesson  from  Almighty 


40  I 'HE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

God,  who  in  his  works  hath  shown  us,  and  in  his  word 
also  has  told  us,  that  "he  hath  made  everything,"  not 
one  thing,  or  another  thing,  but  everything,  "beautiful 
in  his  time."  Among  all  the  devices  of  creation,  there 
is  not  one  more  wonderful,  whether  it  be  the  movement 
of  the  heavenly  bodies,  or  the  succession  of  the  sea- 
sons and  the  years,  or  the  adaptation  of  the  world  and 
its  phenomena  to  the  conditions  of  human  life,  or  the 
structure  of  the  eye,  or  hand,  or  any  other  part  of  the 
frame  of  man  —  not  one  of  all  these  is  more  wonder- 
ful, than  the  profuseness  with  which  the  mighty  Maker 
has  been  pleased  to  shed  over  the  works  of  his  hands 
an  endless  and  boundless  beauty. 

And  to  this  constitution  of  things  outward,  the  con- 
stitution and  mind  of  man,  deranged  although  they  be, 
still  answer  from  within.  Down  to  the  humblest  con- 
dition of  life,  down  to  the  lowest  and  most  backward 
grade  of  civilization,  the  nature  of  man  craves,  and 
seems  as  it  were  even  to  cry  aloud,  for  something,  some 
sign  or  token  at  the  least,  of  what  is  beautiful,  in  some 
of  the  many  spheres  of  mind  or  sense.  This  it  is, 
that  makes- the  Spitalfields  weaver,  amidst  the  murky 
streets  of  London,  train  canaries  and  bulfinches  to 
sing  to  him  at  his  work  :  that  fills  with  flower-pots  the 
windows  of  the  poor :  that  leads  the  peasant  of  Pem- 
brokeshire to  paint  the  outside  of  his  cottage  in  the 
gayest  colors  :  that  prompts,  in  the  humbler  classes  of 
women,  a  desire  for  some  little  personal  ornament 


BEAUTY.  m       41 

certainly  not  without  its  dangers  (for  what  sort 
of  indulgence  can  ever  be  without  them?)  yet  some- 
times, perhaps,  too  sternly  repressed  from  the  high  and 
luxurious  places  of  society. 

But  indeed  we  trace  the  operation  of  this  principle 
yet  more  conspicuously  in  a  loftier  region :  in  that 
instinct  of  natural  and  Christian  piety,  which  taught 
the  early  masters  of  the  fine  arts  to  clothe,  not  only 
the  most  venerable  characters  associated  with  the 
objects  and  history  of  our  faith,  but  especially  the  idea 
of  the  sacred  person  of  our  Lord,  in  the  noblest  forms 
of  beauty  that  their  minds  could  conceive,  and  their 
hands  could  execute. 

It  is,  in  short,  difficult  for  human  beings  to  harden 
themselves  at  all  points  against  the  impressions  and 
the  charm  of  beauty.  Every  form  of  life,  that  can  be 
called  in  any  sense  natural,  will  admit  them. 

If  we  look  for  an  exception,  we  shall  perhaps  come 
nearest  to  rinding  one  in  a  quarter  where  it  would  not 
at  first  be  expected.  I  know  not  whether  there  is  any 
one  among  the  many  species  of  human  aberration 
that  renders  a  man  so  entirely  callous  as  the  lust  of 
gain  in  its  extreme  degrees.  That  passion,  where  it 
has  full  dominion,  excludes  every  other ;  it  shuts  out 
even  what  might  be  called  redeeming  infirmities ;  it 
blinds  men  to  the  sense  of  beauty,  as  surely  as  to  the 
perception  of  justice  and  right ;  cases  might  perhaps 
be  named  of  countries,  where  greediness  for  money 


42  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

holds  the  widest  sway,  and  where  unmitigated  ugliness 
is  the  principal  characteristic  of  industrial  products. 
On  the  other  hand,  I  do  not  believe  it  is  extravagant 

7  O 

to  say,  that  the  pursuit  of  the  element  of  beauty,  in 
the  business  of  production,  will  be  found  to  act  with  a 
genial,  chastening,  and  refining  influence  on  the  com- 
mercial spirit;  that,  up  to  a  certain  point,  it  is  in  the 
nature  of  a  preservative  against  some  of  the  moral 
dangers  that  beset  trading  and  manufacturing  enter- 
prise ;  and  that  we  are  justified  in  regarding  it  not 
merely  as  that  which  contributes  to  our  works  an  ele- 
ment of  value ;  not  that  which  merely  supplies  a  par- 
ticular faculty  of  human  nature  with  its  proper  food 
but  as  a  liberalizing  and  civilizing  power,  and  an  in- 
strument, in  its  own  sphere,  of  moral  and  social  im- 
provement. Indeed  it  would  be  strange,  if  a  deliberate 
departure  from  what  we  see  to  be  the  law  of  nature, 
in  its  outward  sphere,  were  the  road  to  a  close  con- 
formity with  its  innermost  and  highest  laws. 

But  now  let  us  not  conceive  that,  because  the  love 
of  beauty  finds  for  itself  a  place  in  the  general  heart 
of  mankind,  therefore  we  need  never  make  it  the 
object  of  a  special  attention,  or  put  in  action  special 
means  to  promote  and  to  uphold  it.  For  after  all,  our 
attachment  to  it  is  a  matter  of  degree,  and  of  degree 
which  experience  has  shown  to  be,  in  different  places, 
and  at  different  times,  indefinitely  variable. 


BEAUTY.  43 

We  may  not  be  able  to  reproduce  the  age  of  Peri- 
cles, or  even  that  which  is  known  as  the  Cinque-cents  ; 
but  yet  it  depends  upon  our  own  choice,  whether  we 
shall  or  shall  not  have  a  title  to  claim  kindred,  how- 
ever remotely,  with  either,  aye  or  with  both,  of  those 
brilliant  periods.  What  we  are  bound  to  do  is  this: 
to  take  care,  that  everything  we  produce  shall,  in  its 
kind  and  class,  be  good  as  we  can  make  it. 

XXV. 

When  Dr.  Johnson  was  asked  by  Mr.  Boswell,  how 
he  had  attained  to  his  extraordinary  excellence  in  con- 
versation, he  replied,  he  had  no  other  rule  or  system 
than  this  ;  that,  whenever  he  had  anything  to  say,  he 
tried  to  say  it  in  the  best  manner  he  was  able.  It  is 
this  perpetual  striving  after  excellence  on  the  one  hand 
or  the  want  of  such  effort  on  the  other,  which  more 
than  the  original  difference  of  gifts  (certain,  and  great 
as  that  difference  may  be),  contributes  to  bring  about 
the  differences  we  observe  in  the  works  and  characters 
of  men. 

XXVI. 

The  quest  of  beauty  leads  all  those  who  engage  in  it 
to  the  ideal  or  normal  man,  as  the  summit  of  attain- 


44  THE  MIGHT  OF   RIGHT. 

able  excellence.  By  no  arbitrary  choice,  but  in  obedi- 
ence to  unchanging  laws,  the  painter  and  the  sculptor 
must  found  their  art  upon  the  study  of  the  human  form, 
and  must  reckon  its  successful  reproduction  as  their 
noblest  and  most  consummate  exploit. 

The  concern  of  poetry  with  corporal  beauty  is,  though 
important,  yet  secondary ;  this  art  uses  form  as  a 
subordinate,  though  proper  part  in  the  delineation  of 
mind  and  character  of  which  it  is  appointed  to  be 
a  visible  organ.  But  with  mind  and  character  them- 
selves lies  the  highest  occupation  of  the  muse.  Homer, 
the  patriarch  of  poets,  has  founded  his  two  immortal 
works  upon  two  of  these  ideal  developments  in  Achilles 
and  Ulysses ;  and  has  adorned  them  with  others,  such 
as  Penelope  and  Helen,  Hector  and  Diomed,  every 
one  an  immortal  product,  though  as  compared  with  the 
others,  either  less  consummate  or  less  conspicuous. 
Though  deformed  by  the  mire  of  after-tradition,  all 
the  great  characters  of  Homer  have  become  models 
and  standards,  each  in  its  own  kind,  for  what  was,  or 
was  supposed  to  be,  its  distinguishing  gift. 

At  length,  after  many  generations,  and  great  revo- 
lutions of  mind  and  of  events,  another  age  arrived, 
like,  if  not  equal,  in  creative  power  to  that  of  Homer. 
The  gospel  had  given  to  the  life  of  civilized  man  a 
real  resurrection,  and  its  second  birth  was  followed  by 
its  second  youth. 


3EAUTY.  45 

Awakened  to  aspirations  at  once  fresh  and  ancient, 
the  mind  of  man  took  hold  of  the  venerable  ideal  be- 
queathed to  us  by  the  Greeks  as  a  precious  part  of 
its  inheritance,  and  gave  them  again  to  the  light,  ap- 
propriated but  also  renewed.  The  old  materials  came 
forth,  but  not  aione ;  for  the  types  which  human  genius 
had  formerly  conceived,  were  now  submitted  to  the 
transfiguring  action  of  a  law  from  on  high.  Nature, 
herself  prompted  the  effort  to  bring  the  old  patterns 
of  worldly  excellence  and  greatness  —  or  rather  the 
copies  of  those  patterns  still  legible,  though  depraved, 
and  still  rich  with  living  suggestion  —  into  harmony 
with  that  higher  Pattern,  once  seen  by  the  eyes  and 
handled  by  the  hands  of  men,  and  faithfully  delineated 
in  the  Gospels  for  the  profit  of  all  generations.  The 
life  of  our  Saviour,  in  its  external  aspect,  was  that  of 
a  teacher.  It  was,  in  principle,  a  model  for  ail ;  but 
it  left  space  and  scope  for  adaptations  to  the  lay  life 
of  Christians  in  general,  such  as  those  by  whom  the 
every-day  business  of  the  world  is  to  be  carried  on. 
It  remained  for  man  to  make  his  best  endeavor  to 
exhibit  the  great  model  on  its  terrestrial  side,  in  its 
contact  with  the  world.  Here  is  the  true  source  of 
that  new  and  noble  Cycle  which  the  middle  ages  have 
handed  down  to  us  in  duality  of  form,  but  with  a  close 
related  substance,  under  the  royal  sceptres  of  Arthur 
in  England,  and  of  Charlemagne  in  France. 


46  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

XXVII. 

That  internecine  war  with  sin,  which  is  of  the  very 
essence  of  Christianity,  seems  to  have  been  understood 
by  the  anchorites  as  a  war  against  the  whole  visible  and 
sensible  world,  against  the  intellectual  life,  against  a 
great  portion  of  their  own  normal  nature  :  and  though, 
as  regarded  themselves,  even  their  exaggeration  was 
pardonable,  and  in  many  respects  a  noble  error,  yet 
its  unrestricted  sway  and  extension  would  have  left 
man  a  maimed,  a  stunted,  a  distorted  creature.  And 
it  would  have  done  more  than  this.  By  severing  the 
gospel  from  all  else  that  is  beautiful  and  glorious  in 
creation,  it  would  have  exposed  the  spiritual  teacher 
to  a  resistance  not  only  vehement  but  just,  and  would 
have  placed  the  kingdom  of  grace  in  peimanent  and 
hopeless  discord  with  the  kingdoms  of  nature,  reason, 
truth,  and  beauty,  kingdoms  established  by  the  very 
same  Almighty  Hand. 

XXVIII. 

In  the  application  of  beauty  to  works  of  utility,  the 
reward  is  generally  remote.  A  new  element  of  labor 
is  imported  into  the  process  of  production ;  and  that 
element,  like  others,  must  be  paid  for. 

The  beautiful  object  will  be  dearer  than  one  perfectly 
bare  and  bald  \  not  because  utility  is  curtailed  or  com- 


,   BEAUTY.  47 

promised  for  the  sake  of  beauty,  but  because  there 
may  be  more  manual  labor,  and  there  must  be  more 
thought,  in  the  original  design  — 

"  Pater  ipse  colendi 
Haud  facilem  esse  viain  voluit." 

Therefore  the  manufacturer,  whose  daily  thought  it 
must  and  ought  to  be  to  cheapen  his  productions, 
endeavoring  to  dispense  with  all  that  can  be  spared,  is 
under  such  temptation  to  decline  letting  beauty  stand 
as  an  item  to  lengthen  the  account  of  the  costs  of 
production.  So  the  pressure  of  economical  laws  tells 
severely  upon  the  finer  elements  of  trade.  And  yet 
it  may  be  argued  that,  in  this  as  in  other  cases,  in  the 
case  for  example  of  the  durability  and  solidity  of  arti- 
cles, that  which  appears  cheapest  at  first  may  not  be 
cheapest  in  the  long  run.  And  this  for  two  reasons. 
In  the  first  place,  because  in  the  long  run  mankind  are 
willing  to  pay  a  price  for  beauty.  France  is  the  second 
commercial  country  of  the  world ;  and  her  command 
of  foreign  markets  seems  clearly  referable,  in  a  great 
degree,  to  the  real  elegance  of  her  productions,  and  to 
establish  in  the  most  intelligible  form  the  principle 
that  taste  has  an  exchangeable  value ;  that  it  fetches 
a  price  in  the  markets  of  the  world. 

But,  furthermore,  there  seems  to  be  another  way  by 
which  the  law  of  nature  arrives  at  its  revenge  upon 
the  short-sighted  lust  for  cheapness. 


48  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

We  begin,  say,  by  finding  beauty  expensive.  We 
accordingly  decline  to  pay  a  class  of  artists  for  produc- 
ing it.  Their  employment  ceases ;  and  the  class  itself 
disappears.  Presently  we  find  by  experience  that  works 
reduced  to  utter  baldness  do  not  long  satisfy.  We 
have  to  meet  a  demand  for  embellishment  of  some 
kind.  But  we  have  now  starved  out  the  race  who  knew 
the  laws  and  modes  of  its  production.  Something, 
however,  must  be  done.  So  we  substitute  strength  for 
flavor,  quantity  for  quality ;  and  we  end  by  producing 
incongruous  excrescences,  or  even  hideous  malforma- 
tions, at  a  greater  cost  than  would  have  sufficed  for 
the  nourishment  among  us,  without  a  break,  of  chaste 
and  virgin  art. 

XXIX. 

In  all  physical  and  material  objects  there  are  two 
things  to  look  to,  one  of  them  is  utility  and  the  other 
is  beauty.  Now,  utility  of  course  includes  strength, 
accuracy  of  form,  convenience,  and  so  forth.  I  don't 
enter  into  details.  I  only  want  to  remind  you  that, 
besides  the  utility  of  these  objects  made  to  meet  our 
common  wants  of  every  possible  description,  there  is 
the  important  consideration  of  their  beauty,  which 
divides  itself  into  various  branches,  on  which  I  need 
not  dwell  in  detail,  viz.,  beauty  of  form,  beauty  of 
color,  beauty  of  proportion;  but  let  us  for  a  moment 


BEAUTY. 


49 


just  fix  our  minds  on  this  question  of  beauty  as  a 
whole.  Now  the  question  is,  "  Is  there  any  special 
reason  why  we  should  endeavor  to  promote  the  educa- 
tion of  our  people  —  the  education  of  our  artisan 
people  —  in  the  matter  of  beauty  ?  "  I  hold,  that  there 
is  a  very  special  reason  indeed.  It  is  quite  evident 
that  we  are  passing  into  a  time  when,  from  whatever 
causes  —  I  need  not  at  the  present  moment  expatiate 
upon  the  causes  —  but  when,  from  whatever  causes, 
the  commerce  of  England  will  have,  at  any  rate  for  a 
period,  a  severe  struggle  to  maintain.  Consequently 
it  is  desirable  that  we  should  husband  all  our  means 
for  that  struggle ;  that  we  should  enlarge  all  our  means 
for  that  struggle.  Now,  for  that  reason,  those  who  are 
concerned  in  industrial  productions  ought  to  review 
carefully  the  manner  in  which  they  have  been  working, 
and  ought  to  consider  whether  it  is  in  all  respects  such 
as  it  ought  to  be.  I  believe  myself  they  will  find  great 
room  —  very  general  room  —  for  amendment  in  regard 
to  a  number  of  branches.  I  am  going  to  give  an  opin- 
ion which  my  sense  of  duty  impels  me  to  give  —  an 
opinion  which,  from  my  long  experience  of  public  life, 
placing  me  as  it  has  done,  very  much  in  relation  to  the 
great  industries  of  England,  has  been  long  ago  formed 
in  my  mind,  viz.,  this — that  the  Englishman  who  is  a 
marvellous  man  in  the  business  of  production,  when  he 
is  put  under  pressure  is  apt  to  be  relax  and  careless, 
and  is  satisfied  if  he  can  produce  things  that  will  sell. 


5c  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT, 

He  has  not  so  much  as  he  ought  to  have  of  the  love  of 
excellence  for  its  own  sake  in  what  he  produces. 
Many  will  say  that  it  is  a  visionary  idea,  this  love  of 
promoting  excellence  for  its  own  sake ;  still,  I  hold  that 
this  idea,  whether  in  relation  to  beauty  or  utility,  has 
its  place  in  the  market. 

XXX. 

Depend  upon  it  that  all  false,  all  sham  work,  how- 
ever it  may  last  for  a  little,  the  effect  of  it  is  ultimately 
to  destroy  reputation,  to  take  away  confidence,  and  to 
act  most  injuriously  upon  those  who  have  adopted  the 
trick.  But,  apart  from  that,  I  have  the  strongest  con- 
viction that  all  along  English  industry  has  been  defect- 
ive in  the  matter  of  beauty.  The  quality  under  which 
we  generally  hear  that  described  —  the  form  under 
which  we  generally  hear  that  important  element  de- 
scribed —  is  under  the  name  of  taste.  Well,  taste  is 
nothing  in  the  world  except  the  faculty  which  devises 
according  to  the  laws  of  beauty,  which  executes  accord- 
ing to  the  laws  of  beauty.  In  France  the  standard  of 
taste,  taken  as  a  whole,  in  French  production  is  very 
much  higher  than  in  the  productions  of  England  and  de- 
pend upon  it,  it  is  the  taste  of  the  French  which  fetches 
the  price  in  the  market  as  well  as  the  other  qualities  of 
what  they  produce,  and  which  has  immensely  contrib- 
uted to  give  to  France  its  very  high  place  in  the  com- 


BEAUTY.  51 

merce  of  the  world  —  because  I  dare  say  you   know 
that  France  is  at  this  moment,  and  for  some  time  has 
been,  the  second  country  in  the 'world  as  regards  the 
export  of  her  domestic  productions.     Well,  it  is  this 
want  which  the  schools  of  art  in  England  aim  at  sup- 
plying.    It  is  a  great  national  want,  a  national   want 
that  has  been  felt  at   all  times,  and   a   national   want 
that  is  now  especially  felt,  because  of  the   depression 
of    British   commerce   and   because   of  the   increased 
difficulties  in  finding  a  way  into  the  markets  of  many 
foreign   countries.      Now,    it   seems   a   very    singular 
thing  that  this  want  should  exist,  because  it  is  admitted 
that  England  is  a  country  which,  in  the  products   of 
beauty  in  its  highest  form,  shows  no  deficiency  at  all. 
If  we  take  the  very  highest  form  in  which  it  is  given  to 
man  to  produce  what  is  beautiful,  probably  the  highest 
form   of    all   is   that   of   poetry.     Well,   but   England 
boasts  of  herself,  and  boasts  with  some  good  reason, 
that    in   comparing  her  poetical  productions  with  the 
literature  of  Europe  she  can  take  a  place  which  is  mod- 
estly stated,  if  we  only  call  it  a  place,  in  the  first  rank, 
because  there  are  even  those  who  would  say,  and  would 
say  with  some  color  of  plausibility,  if  not  of  reason 
that  English  poetry  stands  at  the  head  of  the  whole 
modern   poetry  of   the  world.     At  any   rate,    I   think 
there  is  very  little    doubt   of  this — that   the   English 
poetry  belonging  to  the  nineteenth  century  has  been  at 
the  head  of  the  poe/  ry  of  the  world  in  this  nineteenth 


52  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

century.  I  will  not  say  we  stand  so  high  —  for  we  do 
not  stand  so  high,  relatively  —  in  other  forms  of  pro- 
duction, when  we  come  to  touch  upon  what  is  material 
—  I  mean  in  painting,  in  sculpture,  and  in  architecture. 
But  there  is  quite  enough  in  the  school  of  painting,  of 
sculpture,  and  of  architecture  in  this  country  to  show 
that  there  is  no  deficiency  whatever  in  the  English 
people  in  the  sense  of  beauty ;  but  what  there  is  in  the 
English  people  —  at  least  what  there  has  been  in  the 
English  people  —  seems  to  be  this,  (it  is  a  fault,  but  a 
remediable  fault :)  there  seems  to  be  some  deficiency  in 
the  habit  which  connects  the  sense  of  beauty  with  the 
production  of  works  of  utility.  Now,  these  two  things 
are  quite  distinct.  In  the  old  times,  in  the  oldest  times 
of  human  industry,  that  is,  among  the  Greeks,  there 
was  no  separation,  no  gap  at  all,  between  the  idea  of 
beauty  and  the  idea  of  utility.  Whatever  the  Greek 
produced  in  ancient  times  he  made  as  useful  as  he 
could,  and  at  the  same  time  he  made  it  a  cardinal  law 
with  him  to  make  it  as  beautiful  as  he  could ;  but  that 
has  been  forgotten. 

XXXI. 

We  have  thought  a  great  deal  about  cheap  and  use- 
ful production  :  but  until  lately,  at  least,  until  fifty  or 
sixty  years  ago,  we  thought  very  little  about  beautiful 
production.  If  I  take,  for  example,  the  tissues  of 


BEAUTY.  53 

England  ;  thirty  years  ago  all  the  patent  patterns  for 
our  cotton  prints  were  obtained  from  France.  Well, 
now  we  take  patterns  from  France  and  we  send  pat- 
terns to  France;  and  the  people  of  Mulhausen  —  I 
believe  now  it  is  in  Germany  and  not  in  France,  but 
that  does  not  matter  for  my  purpose  —  they  exchange 
patterns,  in  fact,  instead  of  simply  sending  patterns  to 
England.  That  was  the  state  of  the  case  when  I  heard 
it  last.  If  you  will  take  again  two  other  important 
branches  of  production,  glass  and  porcelain,  the  Eng- 
lish glass  has  become  extremely  beautiful  and  also  very 
convenient.  I  am  not  speaking  now  of  plate  glass, 
window  glass  and  so  forth  —  I  am  speaking  of  glass 
for  services,  glass  for  wine  glasses  and  all  portable 
objects  of  that  kind ;  and  there  is  no  doubt  at  all,  I 
think,  that  the  manufacture,  as  far  as  regards  both  the 
convenience  and  the  form  and  the  character  of  the 
material  and  object,  has  advanced  to  a  very  satisfactory 
condition.  It  is  in  entire  contrast  with  what  it  was 
forty  or  fifty  years  ago.  It  was  then  a  very  great  deal 
dearer,  and  it  was  then  a  great  deal  uglier.  The  sense 
of  beauty  —  of  value  for  beauty  —  has  found  its  way 
into  that  manufacture.  If  we  take  porcelain,  a  similar 
improvement  has  taken  place.  Anybody  who  was 
familiar  with  the  tea  and  coffee  and  dinner  services  of 
forty  or  fifty  years  ago  —  supposing  him  to  have  been 
asleep  during  these  fifty  years,  and  to  awake  to-day  and 
go  down  into  the  best  shops  and  repositories  to  ob- 


54  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

serve  the  character  of  the  goods  that  are  on  sale  — 
would  think  that  he  had  passed  into  another  world,  so 
entirely  different  are  they  and  so  far  superior  to  what 
was  produced  in  the  time  of  one  generation,  and  es- 
pecially of  two  generations  back.  I  am  very  glad  to 
see  that  the  same  spirit  of  improvement  and  the  same 
love  of  beauty  have  found  their  way  into  the  produc- 
tion of  metal  works ;  for  my  opinion  is  that  the  refor- 
mation in  the  art  of  producing  metal  work  is  a  more 
serious  business,  and  comes  slower.  I  don't  mean  to 
say  that  in  design  of  silver  plate  we  have  made  as  yet 
the  same  advance  that  we  have  in.glass  and  porcelain  \ 
but  the  beautiful  works  of  Messrs.  Elkington  for  in- 
stance, will  show  you  that  here,  also,  is  improved  work. 
But  don't  suppose  that  because  improvement  is  at  work, 
therefore  there  is  no  more  to  do.  We  want  to  carry  the 
spirit  of  improvement  to  such  a  condition  that  it  shall  not 
depend  upon  the  special  spirit  of  enterprise  in  this  or  in 
that  master  of  a  workshop  or  a  factory.  We  want  to 
get  it  into  the  mind,  and  brain,  and  heart,  and  feelings 
of  the  workman  himself.  Now,  there  are  workmen 
that  have  it  already. 

There  are  most  interesting  exhibitions  held  some- 
times in  London  —  exhibitions  where  nothing  is  shown 
excepting  works  produced  by  the  workmen  themselves 
in  their  leisure  hours,  and  it  is  most  interesting  —  I 
will  even  say  it  is  most  touching  —  to  witness  the  ar- 
duous efforts  and  the  successful  efforts  which  a  numbei 


BEAUTY.  55 

of  those  men  make  to  produce  things  outside  the 
hours  of  their  labor,  which  one  knows  —  though  they 
are  not  so  heavy  as  they  have  been  in  former  times  — 
yet  are  quite  sufficient  on  the  whole  to  tax  the  average 
energies  of  men  to  their  utmost  power.  But  these 
workmen,  after  all,  are  individual  exceptions.  We  want 
that  spirit  to  spread.  We  want  the  working  man  to 
understand  this,  that  if  he  can  learn  to  appreciate 
beauty  in  industrial  productions,  he  is  thereby  doing 
good  to  himself ;  first,  not  only  in  the  improvement  of 
his  mind,  in  the  pleasure  he  derives  from  his  work, 
but  likewise  and  literally  he  is  increasing  his  own 
capital,  which  is  his  labor  —  he  is  increasing  his  own 
capital  as  truly  and  substantially  as  if  he  could  add 
to  the  muscles  of  his  arms  by  doubling  their  force  all 
at  once.  He  is  going  to  introduce  into  the  thing  he 
produces  an  element  comparatively  new  to  him;  but 
it  will  add  to  its  value,  add  to  the  price  it  brings  in 
the  market  —  an  element  which  will  increase  the  com- 
forts that  he  can  provide  for  his  wife  and  family.  It 
appears  to  me  that  I  have  said  all  that  is  necessary. 
I  think  it  a  matter  so  plain  that  I  am  almost  ashamed 
of  seeming  to  dwell  upon  it,  as  if  it  required  explana- 
tion. But  we  want  to  infuse  into  the  minds  of  the 
population,  generally,  an  idea  which  as  yet  they  have 
not  sufficiently  embraced,  which  it  is  always  desirable 
they  should  embrace,  but  which  it  is  now  of  a  special 
value  and  necessity  that  they  should  come  thoroughly 


56  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

to  understand,  and  that  they  should  adapt  and  make 
use  of,  as  part  of  the  regular  apparatus  of  life,  namely, 
the  pursuit  of  the  beauty  of  those  things  that  they 
make,  as  well  as  the  pursuit  of  their  utility. 

XXXII. 

The  Christian  thought,  the  Christian  tradition,  the 
Christian  society,  are  the  great,  the  imperial  thought, 
the  tradition,  and  society  of  this  earth.  It  is  from 
Christendom  outwards  that  power  and  influence  radi- 
ate, not  towards  it  and  into  it  that  they  flow.  There 
seems  to  be  but  one  point  at  least  on  the  surface  of 
the  earth  —  namely,  among  the  negro  races  of  West 
Africa  —  where  Mahometism  gains  ground  upon  Chris- 
tianity ;  but  that  assuredly  is  not  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment from  whence  will  issue  the  fiats  of  the  future, 
to  direct  the  destinies  of  mankind. 

XXXIII. 

The  astounding  fact  of  the  manifestation  of  the  Lord 
of  Glory,  under  the  veil  of  human  flesh  may,  and  does, 
stagger  in  some  minds  the  whole  faculty  of  belief. 
Those  minds,  however,  guided  by  equity,  will  admit 
that  if  this  great  Christian  postulate  be  sound,  much 
must  follow  from  it.  For  then  we  must  in  reason  ex- 
pect to  find,  not  only  an  elaborate  preparation  in  the 


CHRISTIANITY.  57 

outer  world  for  an  event  which,  by  the  very  statement 
of  the  terms,  dwarfs  the  dimensions  of  every  other 
known  transaction,  but  likewise  a  most  careful  adjust- 
ment of  the  means  by  which,  being  so  vast  in  itself, 
it  could  find  entrance  into  the  human  mind  and  heart. 

The  religion  of  Christ  had  to  adapt  itself  to  the  least 
as  well  as  to  the  largest  forms  of  our  life  and  nature, 
while  its  central  idea  was  in  very  truth  of  such  a  large- 
ness, in  comparison  to  all  we  are  or  can  be,  as  to 
make  the  absolute  distance  between  the  greatest  of 
human  greatness,  and  the  smallest  of  human  littleness, 
sink  into  insignificance. 

No  more  in  the  inner  than  in  the  outer  sphere  did 
Christ  come  among  us  as  a  conqueror,  making  his 
appeal  to  force.  We  were  neither  to  be  consumed  by 
the  heat  of  the  divine  presence,  nor  were  we  to  be 
dazzled  by  its  brightness.  God  was  not  in  the  storm, 
nor  in  the  fire,  nor  in  the  flood,  but  he  was  in  the 
still,  small  voice. 

This  vast  treasure  was  not  only  to  be  conveyed  to 
us,  and  set  down  as  it  were  at  our  doors ;  it  was  to 
enter  into  us,  to  become  part  of  us,  and  to  become 
that  part  which  should  rule  the  rest ;  it  was  to  assimi- 
late alike  the  mind  and  heart  ot"  every  class  and 
description  of  men. 

While,  as  a  moral  system,  it  aimed  at  an  entire 
dominion  in  the  heart,  this  dominion  was  to  be  founded 
upon  an  essential  conformity  to  the  whole  of  our 


$8  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

original  and  true  essence.  It  therefore  recognized 
the  freedom  of  man,  and  respected  his  understanding, 
even  while  it  absolutely  required  him  both  to  learn 
and  to  unlearn  so  largely;  the  whole  of  the  new 
lessons  were  founded  upon  principles  that  were  based 
in  the  deepest  and  best  regions  of  his  nature,  and 
that  had  the  sanction  of  his  highest  faculties  in  their 
moments  of  calm,  and  in  circumstances  of  impar- 
tiality. The  work  was  one  of  restoration,  of  return, 
and  of  enlargement,  not  of  innovation.  A  space  was 
to  be  bridged  over,  and  it  was  vast ;  but  a  space  where 
all  the  piers,  and  every  foundation-stone  of  the  con- 
necting structure,  were  to  be  laid  in  the  reason  and 
common-sense,  in  the  history  and  experience  of  man. 

XXXIV. 

Like  the  seed  to  which  Christ  compares  the  gospel, 
all  the  early  stages  of  its  life  were  to  be  silent  and  to 
be  slow.  Gradually  to  lay  a  broad  basis  of  such  evi- 
dence as  ought  through  all  time  to  satisfy  the  reason 
and  the  heart  of  mankind,  seems  to  have  been  the 
object  with  which  our  Saviour  wrought.  The  general 
if  he  be  a  good  general,  and  has  his  choice,  will  deploy 
his  whole  army  on  the  battle-field,  before  any  portion 
of  it  begins  to  fight.  The  hot  and  fierce  assent  of  a 
few  enthusiasts  might  doubtless  have  been  had  on  easy 


CHRISTIANITY.  59 

terms  :  like  a  fire  of  straw,  come  and  gone  in  a  moment, 
and  leaving  neither  light  nor  warmth  behind. 

Are  any  startled  at  the  idea  that  our  Lord's  first 
object  may  have  been  in  the  main  limited  to  fixing  well 
in  the  minds  of  his  hearers  the  belief  in  his  divine 
mission  only  ?  Will  they  say  in  answer,  that  by  his 
reply  to  the  confession  of  Nicodemus  he  emphatically 
teaches  the  insufficiency  of  the  belief  to  which  that 
ruler  had  therefore  attained  ?  For  the  answer  of 
Christ  is  not  a  commendation  or  an  acquiescence,  but 
a  solemn  monition  :  "  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  thee, 
Except  a' man  be  born  again,  he  cannot  see  the  king- 
dom of  God."  As  much  as  to  say,  "It  is  not  enough 
that  you  have  examined  my  credentials,  and  that,  ap- 
proving them,  you  own  me  as  a  teacher  carrying  a 
commission  from  on  high.  You  must  accept  deeper 
results  of  my  mission  than  any  you  have  yet  thought 
of,  and  must  give  your  mind  and  spirit  to  be  translated 
into  the  region  of  a  new  and  better  life." 

Such  is,  I  suppose,  an  approximation  to  the  sense  of 
our  Lord's  reply.  The  confession  then  of  Nicodemus 
was  insufficient.  But  so  is  the  first  step  of  a  flight  of 
stairs  without  those  that  are  to  carry  us  onward  to  the 
level  above ;  yet  the  laying  well  and  solidly  the  first 
steps,  without  any  visible  sign  of  regard  to  those  that 
are  to  follow,  may  be  the  way,  and  the  only  way,  to 
construct  a  practicable  and  durable  ascent. 

There  is,  however,  a  peculiar  delicacy,  if  this  phrase 


6o  THE  MIGHT  OF   RIGHT. 

may  be  allowed,  in  this  method  of  procedure  adopted 
by  the  Great  Teacher.  Along  with  that  element  of 
superhuman  power  which  was  to  establish  a  superhu- 
man origin  for  his  mission,  there  was  combined  a  cer- 
tain character  of  love,  of  pity,  of  unwearying  help,  of 
tender  and  watchful  care,  which  is  to  be  read  in  the 
deeds  of  our  Lord  from  first  to  last ;  the  only  two 
exceptions,  which  may  have  had  excellent  reasons  of 
their  own,  being  those  of  the  fig-tree  and  the  swine ; 
exceptions  not  touching  the  race  of  man. 

Now  the  gross  and  carnal  temper  in  man  is  far  more 
easily  caught  by  power  than  by  love.  To  a  certain 
extent,  then,  the  display  of  power,  intended  to  show 
that  Christ  had  come  from  God  to  carry  us  back  along 
with  himself  to  God,  tended  to  counteract  that  very 
object,  if  it  should  relatively  lower  in  our  minds  the 
force  of  the  attraction  of  love ;  if,  of  the  two  great 
functions  of  deity  exhibited  in  the  miracles,  the  one 
which  was  more  splendid  and  imposing  should  eclipse 
the  one  more  modest,  bnt  more  precious  and  more 
authentic.  Hence,  perhaps,  it  is  that  we  find  a  certain 
veiling  of  the  power  that  was  in  Christ,  by  these  re- 
serves and  injunctions  of  secrecy.  In  the  rude  repeti- 
tion of  the  miracles  from  mouth  to  mouth,  they  would 
have  fared  as  the  picture  of  some  great  artist  fares 
when  it  is  copied  at  second,  third,  and  fourth  hand  : 
the  finer  and  deeper  graces  disappear  \  the  clothing  of 
the  idea  disappears,  and  only  a  coarse  outline  survives. 


CHRIS  TIANI  TV.  6 1 

And  so  it  really  seems  as  if  our  Saviour  had  desired  to 
place  considerable  checks  on  the  circulation  of  mere 
report  concerning  the  miracles ;  and  in  lieu  of  its  con- 
fused and  bewildering  echoes,  to  trust  rather  to  each 
man's  seeing  for  himself,  and  then  calmly  reflecting  on 
so  much  as  he  had  seen. 

XXXV. 

In  all  of  the  greater  parables,  which  present  their 
subject  in  detail,  Christ  himself  when  they  are  inter- 
preted, fills  a  much  higher  place  than  that  simply  of  a 
teacher  divinely  accredited.  They  all  shadow  forth  a 
dispensation,  which,  in  all  its  parts,  stands  related  to, 
and  dependent  on,  a  central  figure ;  and  that  central 
figure  is,  in  every  case  but  two,  our  Saviour  himself. 

He  is  the  Sower  of  the  seed,  the  Owner  of  the  vine- 
yard, the  Householder  in  whose  field  of  wheat  the 
enemy  intermingled  the  tares,  the  Lord  of  the  unfor- 
giving servant,  the  Nobleman  who  went  into  a  far 
country  and  gave  out  the  talents  and  said :  "  Occupy 
till  I  come  ; "  lastly  the  Bridegroom  among  the  virgins, 
wise  and  foolish.  In  ever}'  one  of  these  our  Saviour 
appears  in  the  attitude  of  kingship.  He  rules,  directs, 
and  furnishes  all ;  he  punishes  and  rewards.  Every 
one  of  these,  when  the  sense  is  fully  apprehended, 
repeats,  as  it  were,  or  anticipates  the  procession  of  the 
day  of  Palms,  and  asserts  his  title  to  dominion.  They 


62  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

must  be  considered,  surely,  as  very  nearly  akin,  if  they 
are  not  more  than  nearly  akin  to  declarations  of  his 
deity. 

Two  others  there  are  which  have  not  yet  been  men- 
tioned. One  is  the  parable  of  the  householder,  who 
planted  a  vineyard  and  went  into  a  far  country,  and 
sent  his  servants  to  receive  his  share  of  the  produce. 
In  this  parable  our  Lord  is  not  the  master,  but  the 
master's  heir,  the  person  whose  the  vineyard  is  to  be, 
and  who,  being  sent  to  perform  the  office  in  which  the 
other  messengers  had  failed,  is  put  to  death,  by  the 
cruel  and  contumacious  tenants.  But  this  parable,  if  it 
sets  forth  something  less  than  his  kingship,  also  sets 
forth  much  more,  and  embodies  the  great  mystery  of 
his  death  by  wicked  hands.  There  is  also  the  parable 
of  a  certain  king,  which  made  a  marriage  for  his  son  ; 
a  relation  which  involves  far  more,  than  had  commonly 
been  expressed  in  the  direct  teaching. 

Upon  the  whole,  then,  the  proposition  will  stand  good 
that  these  parables  differ  from,  and  are  in  advance  of 
the  general  instruction  respecting  the  person  of  the 
Redeemer  in  the  three  Synoptic  Gospels,  and  place  him 
in  a  "rank  wholly  above  that  of  a  mere  teacher,  however 
true  and  holy.  They  set  forth  that  difference  from 
previous  prophets  and  agents  of  the  Almighty,  which 
has  been  noticed  by  the  apostle  to  the  Hebrews  ;  where 
he  says  that  "  Moses  verily  was  faithful  in  all  his  house 
as  a  servant ;  but  Christ  as  a  son,  over  his  own  house." 


CHRISTIANITY.  63 

Now,  we  have  to  sum  up  this  branch  of  the  inquiry 
with  observing  that,  in  that  very  chapter  of  instruction 
where  the  proper  dignity  and  weight  of  the  Redeemer 
in  one  of  his  high  offices,  namely,  as  a  king,  begin  to 
be  significantly  conveyed,  there  is  a  veil  interposed,  as 
if  to  cast  the  scene  into  shadow.  The  truth  is  there  ; 
but  it  ceases  to  thrust  itself  upon  the  mind,  and  stands 
rather  as  the  reward  to  be  obtained  in  after-thought  by 
a  docile  attention. 

Upon  the  field,  then,  which  we  are  now  examining, 
our  Lord  does  not  so  much  teach  himself,  as  prepare 
the  way  for  the  teaching  of  himself,  and  act  once  more, 
though  from  a  different  point,  and  in  a  new  relation, 
the  part  of  his  own  forerunner. 

There  is  yet  another  portion  of  that  field,  upon 
which  we  have  to  cast  a  glance.  During  the  brief 
course  of  his  own  ministry,  our  Saviour  gave  a  com- 
mission to  his  twelve  apostles,  and  likewise  one  to  the 
seventy  disciples.  Each  went  forth  with  a  separate 
set  of  full  and  clear  instructions.  The  commission  to 
the  Twelve  will  be  found  most  fully  given  in  the  tenth 
chapter  of  St.  Matthew;  that  to  the  Seventy  in  the 
tenth  of  St.  Luke.  In  conformity  with  what  we  have 
already  seen,  both  are  silent  in  respect  to  the  Person 
of  our  Lord.  They  seem  to  aim  at  reproducing  in 
miniature  his  own  ministry.  To  the  apostles  he  says, 
"  Preach,  saying,  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand. 
Heal  the  sick,  cleanse  the  lepers,  raise  the  dead,  cast 


64  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

out  devils."  To  the  disciples  he  says,  "  Heal  the  sick 
that  are  therein,  and  say  unto  them,  the  kingdom  of 
God  is  come  nigh  unto  you."  The  announcement  of  a 
society  not  then  founded,  but  about  to  be  founded  upon 
earth,  the  obligation  of  the  hearers  to  believe  in  what 
is  announced,  the  exhibition  of  works  of  relief  and 
love,  that  love  taking  effect  through  a  preternatural 
exercise  of  power  —  here  is  the  gospel  as  it  was 
ordered  to  be  preached  by  the  followers  of  our  Lord 
during  his  lifetime,  and  before  He  had  begun  to  open, 
even  to  the  Twelve,  the  awful  picture  of  his  coming 
death. 

Notable,  indeed,  is  the  difference,  it  might  almost 
be  said  the  contrast,  between  these  commissions,  and 
those  which  were  given  after  the  Resurrection,  as  they 
are  related  in  the  later  part  of  the  four  Gospels.  In 
these  latter  commissions,  the  Person  of  Christ  has 
emerged  in  all  its  grandeur,  from  the  shadow  to  the 
foreground :  it  is  his  power  that  is  given  over  to  them, 
into  him  they  are  to  baptize,  in  his  name  they  are  to 
preach  repentance  and  remission  of  sins. 

To  sum  up,  then ;  there  was  a  twilight  before  the 
dawn,  and  a  dawn  before  the  morning,  and  a  morning 
before  the  day.  The  contrast  between  the  two  classes 
of  commissions,  that  we  have  just  seen,  receives  its 
most  vivid  illustration  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  which 
may  perhaps  not  unfitly  be  termed  the  birthday  of  the 
church.  This  contrast  is  really  a  proof,  not  of  dis- 


CHRISTIANITY.  65 

sonances  in  the  divine  counsels,  but  of  an  harmonious 
and  adapted  progression  in  their  development,  and 
thus  of  their  essential  and  steady  oneness  of  design. 
During  our  Lord's  life,  the  bulv/arks  of  the  kingdom 
of  evil  were  being  smitten  again  and  again  by  constant 
exhibitions  of  his  command  over  the  seen  and  unseen 
worlds ;  and  its  foundations  were  being  sapped  by  the 
winning  force  of  his  benevolence  and  love.  Even 
before  this  work  approached  its  ripeness,  he  cried,  in 
prophetic  anticipation  of  his  triumph,  "  I  beheld  Satan 
like  lightning  fall  from  heaven."  When  he  had  died, 
and  risen,  and  ascended,  then  the  undermining  process 
was  complete ;  and  the  rushing  noise  of  Pentecost  was 
like  the  trumpet-blast  about  the  walls  of  Jeiicho,  when 
the  walls  fell  down  flat,  so  that  the  people  went  up 
into  the  city,  every  man  straight  before  him ;  and  they 
took  the  city. 

XXXVI. 

It  appears  as  if  our  Lord  commonly  was  employed 
in  those  kinds  of  word  and  deed  which,  repeated  in 
substance  over  and  over  again  in  a  large  number  of 
places,  and  before  great  multitudes  of  witnesses,  were 
to  constitute  the  main  ground  of  his  appeal  to  the 
conscience  of  the  world,  and  the  first  basis  of  the  gen- 
eral belief  in  him ;  the  basis,  upon  which  all  the  rest 
was  in  due  time  to  be  built  up.  But  while  he  thus 


66  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

wrought  from  day  to  day,  and  from  place  to  place,  he 
was  also  at  times  employed  in  sowing  a  seed  which 
was  to  lie  longer  in  the  ground  before  the  time  of 
germination. 

Sometimes  he  set  himself  to  sow  it  in  capable  minds 
and  willing  hearts ;  like  those  of  the  apostles,  or  like 
that  of  Nicodemus ;  sometimes  to  let  it  fall  apart  from 
the  common 'beat  of  the  chosen  people,  and  where  it 
could  not  be  choked  by  their  peculiar  prejudices,  as 
with  the  woman  of  Samaria.  But  also  in  Jerusalem, 
itself,  at  least  by  one  series  of  discourses,  he  was 
pleased  to  state  sufficiently,  in  the  hearing  both  of  the 
people  and  of  their  guides,  the  dignity  and  claims  of 
his  person;  so  that  this  authentic  declaration  from 
his  own  lips,  of  the  truths  which  were  after  the  Resur- 
rection to  be  developed  in  apostolic  teaching,  might 
accredit  that  teaching  to  minds  that  would  otherwise 
have  stumbled  at  the  contrast,  or  would  have  been 
unable  to  fill  the  void  between  such  doctrine  posthu- 
mously preached,  and  the  common  tenor  of  our  Lord's 
words  and  acts  as  they  are  given  in  the  Synoptical 
Gospels.  In  this  view,  certain  portions  of  St.  John's 
Gospel  may  be  regarded  as  the  golden  link  between 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  the  theology  of  the 
Apostolic  Epistles. 

XXXVII. 
The  mighty  change   which  Christ  achieved  in  the 


CHRISTIANITY.  67 

whole  frame  and  attitude  of  the  human  mind  with 
respect  to  divine  things,  was  transmitted  from  age  to 
age,  but  not  by  effort  and  agony  like  his,  or  like  the 
subordinate  but  kindred  agency  of  those  who  were 
chosen  by  him  to  co-operate  in  the  great  revolution. 
Sometimes  it  was,  indeed,  both  sustained  and  devel- 
oped by  the  great  powers,  and  by  the  faith  and  zeal 
of  individuals,  and  by  a  constancy  even  unto  death ; 
but  in  the  main  it  passed  on  from  age  to  age  by  tradi- 
tional, insensible,  and  unconscious  influences.  As  the 
ages  grew,  and  as  the  historic  no  less  than  the  social 
weight  of  Christianity  rapidly  accumulated,  men,  by  no 
unnatural  process,  came  to  rely  more  and  more  on  the 
evidence  afforded  by  the  simple  prevalence  of  the 
religion  in  the  world,  which,  if  taken  with  all  its  inci- 
dents, was  in  truth  a  very  great  element  of  proof; 
less  and  less  upon  the  results  of  any  original  investi- 
gation reaching  upwards  to  the  fountain-head.  The 
adhesion  of  the  civil  power,  the  weight  of  a  clergy,  the 
solidity  and  mass  of  Christian  institutions,  the  general 
accommodation  of  law  to  principles  derived  from  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  that  very  flavor  of  at  least  an  historic 
Christianity  which,  after  a  long  undisputed  possession, 
pervades  and  scents  the  whole  atmosphere  of  social 
life ;  all  these  in  ordinary  times  seem  to  the  mass  of 
men  to  be,  as  proofs,  so  sufficient,  that  to  seek  for 
others  would  be  waste  of  time  and  labor. 

If  there  be  unreason  in  this  blind  reliance,  there  is 


68  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

probably  not  less,  but  much  more  unreason  shown, 
when  the  period  of  reaction  comes,  and  when  a  credu- 
lity carried  to  excess  is  placed  in  the  fashion  of  the 
day  by  an  incrudulity  that  wanders  and  runs  wild  in 
the  furthest  outbreaks  of  extravagance :  an  incredulity 
not  only  which  argues  from  the  narrowest  premises  to 
the  broadest  conclusions,  but  which  oftentimes  dis- 
pensing with  argument  altogether,  assumes  that  what- 
ever in  religion  has  heretofore  been  believed  to  be 
true  is  therefore  likely  to  be  false,  and  exhibits  a  ludi- 
crous contrast  between  the  overweening  confidence  of 
men  in  their  own  faculties,  and  their  contempt  for  the 
faculties  of  those  from  whom  they  are  descended. 

I  do  not  suggest  that  a  description  so  broad  could 
be  applied  to  the  present  age.  But  it  is  in  this  direc- 
tion that  we  have  been  lately  tending ;  and  we  have  at 
least  travelled  so  far  upon  the  road  as  this,  that  the 
evidences  purely  traditional  have  lost  their  command 
(among  others)  over  those  large  classes  of  minds  which, 
in  other  times,  before  a  shock  was  given  or  the  tide  of 
mere  fashion  turned,  would  perhaps  most  steadily  and 
even  blindly  have  received  them.  Their  minds  are 
like  what  I  believe  is  said  of  a  cargo  of  corn  on  board 
ship.  It  is  stowed  in  bulk,  and  in  fair  weather  the 
vessel  trims  well  enough ;  but  when  there  is  a  gale  the 
mass  of  grain  strains  over  to  the  leeward  side,  and 
this  dead  weight  increases  the  difficulty  and  the  danger, 
and  does  it  this  way  or  that  mechanically,  according  to 


CHRIS  7IANITY.  69 

the  point   of  the  compass  from  which  the  wind   may 
chance  to  blow. 

In  such  a  time,  there  is  a  disposition  either  to  deny 
outright  the  authority  which  Christianity  may  justly 
claim  from  its  long  historic  existence,  and  from  its  hav- 
ing borne  triumphantly  the  strain  of  so  many  tempests 
or  else,  and  perhaps  with  more  danger,  silently  to 
slight  them  and  pass  them  by,  and  to  live  a  life  de- 
prived alike  of  the  restraints  and  the  consolations  of  a 
strong  and  solid  belief.  Under  these  circumstances, 
may  it  not  be  the  duty  of  the  scribe  rightly  instructed 
in  the  things  concerning  the  kingdom  of  God,  when 
the  old  weapons  cease  for  the  moment  to  penetrate,  that 
he  should  resort  to  other  weapons  which  at  the  time 
are  new,  though  in  reality  they  are  the  oldest  of  all, 
and  had  only  been  laid  aside  because  they  were  sup- 
posed to  have  done  their  work? 

XXXVIII. 

Some  have  been  bold  enough  to  say  that  the  wide 
recognition,  at  the  present  day,  of  ethical  doctrines 
in  practical  forms  is  due  not  to  Christianity,  but  to  the 
progress  of  civilization.  In  answer  to  them,  I  will 
only  halt  for  a  moment,  to  ask  the  question  how  it 
came  that  the  Greek  and,  in  its  turn,  the  Roman  civi- 
lization, each  advancing  to  so  great  a  height,  did  not 
similarly  elevate  the  moral  standards.  And  I  shalj 


70  THE  MIGHT  OF   RIGHT. 

by  anticipation  put  in  a  caveat  against  any  attempt 
to  reply  merely  by  exhibiting  here  and  there  an  unit 
picked  out  of  the  philosophic  schools,  or  the  ideal 
pictures  which  may  be  found  in  the  writings  of  a  tra- 
gedian ;  pictures  which  have  no  more  to  do  with  the 
practical  life  of  contemporary  Greece,  than  have  the 
representations  of  the  Virgin  and  the  Child,  so  much 
admired  in  our  galleries,  with  the  lives  and  characters 
of  those  who  look  on  them,  or  in  most  instances  of 
those  who  painted  them. 

A  comparison  between  Epictetus  and  Paley,  or  be- 
£ween  Aristotle  and  Escobat,  would  be  curious,  but 
would  not  touch  the  point.  I  do  not  inquire  how  low 
some  Christian  may  have  descended,  or  how  high 
some  heathen  may  have  risen,  in  theory,  any  more  than 
in  practice.  When  I  speak  of  the  morality  of  a  re- 
ligion, I  mean  the  principles  and  practices  for  which 
it  has  obtained  the  assent  of  the  mind  and  heart  of 
man;  which  it  has  incorporated  into  the  acknowledged 
and  standing  code  of  its  professors ;  which  it  has 
exhibited  in  the  traditional  practices,  sometimes  of  the 
generality,  sometimes  only  of  the  best.  But  this  is  a 
large  subject,  and  lies  apart.  My  present  argument  is 
only  with  those  who  hold  that  Christianity  lies  within 
the  true  scope  of  the  principle  of  authority,  but  do 
not  develop  the  phrase  Christianity  into  its  specific 
meanings. 

To  such  it  may  be  fairly  put,  that  under  this  name 


CHRISTIANITY.  l\ 

of  Christianity  we  are  to  understand  something  that 
has  some  sort  of  claims  and  sanctions  peculiarly  its 
own ;  for  it  is  not  religion  only,  but  Christian  religion, 
which  comes  to  us  accredited  by  legitimate  authority. 
Now  I  hope  to  obtain  a  general  assent  when  I  contend 
that  Christianity  can  have  no  exclusive  or  preternatural 
claim  upon  us,  unless  that  which  distinguishes  it  as  a 
religion,  has  some  proportionate  representation  in  the 
sphere  of  morality.  In  its  ultimate,  general,  and  per- 
manent effects  upon  morality,  largely  understood,  the 
test  of  the  value  of  a  religion  is  to  be  found ;  and  if 
mankind,  in  its  most  enlightened  portions,  has  lent 
the  weight  of  its  authority  to  Christianity,  we  must 
needs  understand  the  word  to  carry  and  include 
some  moral  elements  due  and  peculiar  to  the  religious 
system. 

And  it  is  not  difficult  to  sketch  in  outline  some  at 
least  of  the  features  which  give  speciality  to  Christian 
morals,  without  disturbing  their  relation  to  the  gen- 
eral, and  especially  the  best  non-Christian  morality  of 
mankind. 

First  and  foremost,  they  are  founded  on  the  char- 
acter and  pattern  of  a  Person,  even  more,  if  possible, 
than  on  His  words.  In  Him  they  recognize  the  stan- 
dard of  consummate  and  divine  perfection. 

Secondly,  they  draw  all  forms  of  duty,  to  God,  to 
men,  and  to  ourselves,  from  one  and  the  same  source. 

Thirdly,  they  are  to  be  practised  towards  all  men 


72  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

alike,  independently  of  station  or  race,  or  even  life  or 
creed. 

Fourthly,  they  are  meant  and  fitted  for  all  men 
equally  to  hold  ;  and  their  most  profound  vitality,  if 
not  their  largest  and  most  varied  development,  is  within 
the  reach  of  the  lowly  and  uninstructed,  in  whose 
minds  and  hearts  it  has,  for  the  most  part,  fewer  and 
less  formidable  barriers  to  surmount,  or  "  strongholds," 
in  the  apostle's  language,  to  cast  down. 

Fifthly,  the  Christian  law  has  placed  the  relation  of 
man  and  woman,  as  such,  in  the  great  institution  of 
marriage  upon  such  a  footing  as  is  nowhere  else  to 
be  found.  I  do  not  say  that  this  is  a  restitution  of  a 
primitive  law :  but,  if  so,  it  was  one,  the  strain  of  which, 
was  found  too  great  for  those  to  whom  it  was  given 
to  bear.  This  law,  with  all  its  restraints  of  kin,  of 
unity,  and  of  perpetuity,  is  perhaps  the  subtlest,  as 
well  as  the  most  powerful,  of  all  the  social  instruments 
which  the  Almighty  has  put  into  use  for  the  education 
of  the  race  :  and  it  is  one,  I  am  firmly  persuaded, 
which  no  self-acting  force,  no  considerations  of  policy, 
will  ever  be  able  to  uphold  in  modern  societies,  when 
it  shall  have  been  severed  from  its  authoritative 
source. 

I  will  not  dwell  in  detail  on  the  mode  in  which  the 
gospel  treats  the  law  of  love,  the  law  of  purity,  or 
that  which  is  perhaps  most  peculiar  to  it,  the  law  of 
pain;  but  will  be  content  with  saying,  sixthly  and 


CHRISTIANITY.  73 

lastly,  that  Christian  morals  as  a  whole  —  as  an  entire 
system  covering  the  whole  life,  nature,  and  experience 
of  man  —  stand  broadly  distinguished  by  their  rich, 
complete,  xand  searching  character  from  other  forms 
of  moral  teaching  now  extant  in  the  world. 

Says  Abbd  Martin,  "The  Eastern  churches  are  al- 
most all  of  them  dead  or  dying  for  the  last  many  cen- 
turies." Dying  for  the  last  many  centuries !  It  is 
told,  I  think  of  Foutenelle,  that  he  was  warned  against 
coffee  as  a  slow  poison.  "  A  very  slow  one,"  he  re- 
plied, "I  have  drunk  it  through  eighty  years."  Surely 
such  a  statement  as  that  of  the  Abbe"  Martin  is  as 
poor,  thin,  transparent,  shift,  which  the  dire  necessities 
of  exhausted  polemics  may  rather  account  for,  than 
excuse. 

I  shall  attempt  no  reply,  except  to  say  that  the 
score  of  millions  of  those  Christians,  who  inhabit  the 
Turkish  Empire,  have  for  almost  a  corresponding  tale 
of  generations  enjoyed  the  highest  of  all  honors  ;  they 
have  been  sufferers  for  their  faith.  They  have  been 
its  martyrs  and  its  confessors.  They  alone  have  con- 
tinuously filled  that  character.  Many  a  tender  maid, 
at  the  threshold  of  her  young  life,  has  gladly  met  her 
doom,  when  the  words  that  accepted  Islam,  the  act 
that  invested  her  with  the  yatchak,  would  have  made 
her  in  a  moment  a  free  and  honored  member  of  a 
privileged,  a  dominant  community.  Ever  sinco  the 
Turkish  hoof  began  to  lay  waste  the  Levant,  those 


74  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

twenty  millions  have  had  before  them,  on  the  one  side 
peace  and  freedom,  on  the  other  side  the  Gospel. 
They  have  chosen  the  Gospel ;  and  have  paid  the  for- 
feit. And  whatever  be  their  faults  and  errors,  it  is 
not  for  us  of  the  West,  amidst  our  ease  and  prosperity, 
our  abundant  sins  and  scandals,  to  stigmatize  them  as 
professors  of  a  dead  or  dying  Christianity,  and  thus 
to  disparage  the  most  splendid  and  irrefragable,  per- 
haps, of  all  the  testimonies  which  man  can  render  to 
the  religion  of  the  Cross. 

XXXIX. 

Let  us  avoid  the  error  of  seeking  to  cherish  a  Chris- 
tianity of  isolation.  The  Christianity  which  is  now 
and  hereafter  to  flourish,  and  through  its  power  in  the 
inner  circles  of  human  thought,  to  influence,  ultimately, 
in  some  manner  more  adequate  than  now,  the  masses 
of  mankind,  must  be  such  as  of  old  the  Wisdom  of 
God  was  described  : 

"  For  in  her  is  an  understanding  spirit,  holy,  one 
only,  manifold,  subtile,  lively,  clear,  undefiled,  plain,  not 
subject  to  hurt,  loving  the  thing  that  is  good,  quick, 
which  cannot  be  letted,  ready  to  do  good,  kind  to  man, 
steadfast,  sure,  free  from  care,  having  all  power,  over- 
seeing all  things.  .  . 

"For  she  is  the  brightness  of  the  everlasting  light, 


CHRISTIANITY.  75 

the  unspotted  mirror  of  the  power  of  God,  and  the 
image  of  his  goodness." 

It  must  be  rilled  full  with  human  and  genial  warmth, 
in  close  sympathy  with  every  true  instinct  and  need 
of  man,  regardful  of  the  just  titles  of  every  faculty 
of  his  nature,  apt  to  associate  with  and  make  its  own 
all,  under  whatever  name  which  goes  to  enrich  and 
enlarge  the  patrimony  of  the  race. 

And  therefore  it  is  well  that  we  should  look  out 
over  the  field  of  history  and  see  if  haply  its  records, 
the  more  they  are  unfolded  do  or  do  not  yield  us  new 
materials  for  the  support  of  faith.  Some  at  least 
among  us  experience  has  convinced  that  just  as  fresh 
wonder  and  confirmed  conviction  flow  from  examining 
the  structure  of  the  universe,  and  its  countless  inhabi- 
tants, and  their  respective  adaptations  to  the  purposes 
of  their  being  and  to  the  use  of  man,  the  same  results 
will  flow  in  yet  larger  measure  from  tracing  the  foot- 
marks of  the  Most  High  in  the  seemingly  bewildered 
paths  of  human  history.  Everywhere,  before  us,  behind 
us,  and  around  us,  and  above  us  and  beneath,  we  shall 
find  the  Power  which  — 

"  Lives  through  all  life,  extends  through  all  extent, 
Spreads  undivided,  operates  unspent." 

And,  together  with  the  Power,  we  shall  find  the  good- 
ness and  the  wisdom,  of  which  that  sublime  Power  is 
but  a  minister.  Nor  can  that  wisdom  and  that  good, 
ness  anywhere  shine  forth  with  purer  splendor,  than 


76  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

when  the  divine  forethought,  working  from  afar,  in 
many  places,  and  through  many  generations,  so  ad- 
justs beforehand  the  acts  and  the  affairs  of  men  as 
to  let  them  all  converge  upon  a  single  point ;  namely, 
upon  that  redemption  of  the  world,  by  God  made  man, 
in  which  all  the  rays  of  his  glory  are  concentrated,  and 
from  which  they  pour  forth  a  flood  of  healing  light 
even  over  the  darkest  and  saddest  places  of  creation. 


XL. 


If  we  survey  with  care  and  candor  the  present  wealth 
of  the  world  —  I  mean  its  wealth  intellectual,  moral, 
and  spiritual — we  find  that  Christianity  has  not  only 
contributed  to  the  patrimony  of  man  its  brightest  and 
most  precious  jewels,  but  has  likewise  been  what  our 
Saviour  pronounced  it,  the  salt  or  preserving'  principle 
of  all  the  residue,  and  has  maintained  its  health,  so  far 
as  it  has  been  maintained  at  all,  against  corrupting 
agencies.  But,  the  salt  is  one  thing,  the  thing  salted 
is  another :  and,  as  in  the  world  of  nature,  so  in  the 
world  of  mind  and  of  human  action,  there  is  much 
that  is  outside  of  Christianity,  that  harmonizes  with 
it,  that  revolves,  so  to  speak,  around  it,  but  that  did 
not  and  could  not  grow  out  of  it.  It  seems  to  have 
been  for  the  filling  up  of  this  outline,  for  the  occu- 
pation of  this  broad  sphere  of  exertion  and  enjoy- 
ment, that  the  Greeks  were,  in  the  counsels  of 


CHRISTIANITY.  77 

Providence,  ordained  to  labor :  that  so  the  gospel, 
produced  in  the  fulness  of  time,  after  the  world's  long 
gestation,  might  have  its  accomplished  work  in  rear- 
ing mankind  up  to  its  perfection,  first  in  the  spiritual 
life,  but  also,  and  through  that  spiritual  life,  in  every 
form  of  excellence,  for  which  the  varied  powers  and 
capacities  of  the  race  had  been  created. 

XLI. 

Whether  we  refer  to  the  Scriptures,  or  to  the 
collateral  evidence  of  history  and  of  the  church,  we 
find  it  to  be  undeniable  as  a  fact  that  Christianity 
purports  to  be  not  a  system  of  moral  teaching  only, 
but  in  vital  union  therewith,  a  system  of  revealed 
facts  concerning  the  nature  of  God,  and  his  dispen- 
sations towards  mankind.  Upon  these  facts,  which 
centre  in  our  Lord  and  Saviour,  moral  teaching  is 
to  rest,  and  to  these  it  is  to  be  indissolubly  attached. 
Thus  the  part  of  Christianity,  called  doctrinal,  has 
that  claim  to  enter  into  our  affirmative  or  negative 
decision,  which  belongs  to  a  question  strictly  practical. 
It  is,  therefore,  one,  to  which  we  inevitably  must 
daily  and  hourly  say  aye  or  no  by  our  actions,  even 
if  we  have  given  no  speculative  reply  upon  it. 

XLII. 
Because,    through    the    mercy   of    Providence,     we 


78  THE  MIGHT  CF   RIGHT. 

have  a  perfectly  free  access  to  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
we  are  apt  comfortably  to  assume  that  we  are  in 
fact  well  acquainted  with  the  sacred  pages.  And 
with  this  we  join  another  assumption,  scarcely  less 
comfortable,  namely,  that,  being  thus  familiar  with 
the  Bible  we  have  had  and  have  no  concern  with 
tradition,  which,  for  us,  is  supposed  to  have  no 
existence.  But  we  little  know  the  breadth  of  mean- 
ing that  lies  in  the  word,  or  the  relation  in  which 
we  each  and  all  stand  to  it.  The  truth  is,  that  we 
are  all  of  us  traditioners  in  a  degree  much  greater 
than  we  think.  Few,  indeed,  are  there  among  us 
whose  religious  belief  and  system  has  actually  been 
formed  either  from  Scripture  as  a  whole,  or  even 
from  that  limited  but  singularly  precious  portion  of 
it  contained  in  the  New  Testament.  What  we  sup- 
pose to  be  from  Scripture  is  really,  as  a  general 
rule,  from  the  catechism,  or  the  schoolmaster,  or  the 
preacher,  or  the  schoo.  of  thought,  in  immediate 
contact  with  which  we  have  been  brought  up ;  or 
perhaps,  it  has  come  from  the  pastor  or  from  the 
parent,  and  in  some  happy  cases  by  the  living  and 
affectionate  contact  of  mind  with  mind.  But  even 
then  it  has  been  tradition;  that  is  to  say,  it  is  the 
delivery  by  them  to  us  of  truth  in  a  form  in  which 
they  possessed  it,  and  in  a  form  which  they  deemed 
the  best  for  us.  Now  suppose  they  were  right  in 
the  choice  of  that  form,  still  it  does  not  follow  that 


THE  HOLY  SCRIPTURES.  79 

what  is  now  the  best  for  us,  after  Christianity  has 
been  rooted  in  the  v/orld  for  nearly  two  thousand 
years,  was  also  the  best  shape  and  the  best  order 
of  instruction  for  those  to  whom  it  was  a  novelty, 
and  who  were  to  be  its  first  propagators,  as  well  as 
its  first  receivers. 

Even  within  the  compass  of  the  New  Testament  we 
see  the  Christian  system  presented  in  various  stages  of 
development,  by  its  various  books,  to  those  for  whom 
they  were  originally  intended.  One  of  these,  the 
earliest  stage,  is  exhibited  to  us  by  the  three  first, 
or,  as  they  are  now  commonly  and  conveniently  termed, 
the  Synoptical  Gospels.  Another  by  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  —  a  book  in  which  we  find  our  religion  ad- 
vanced to  the  stage  of  corporate  or  collective  action. 
We  find  here  the  first  form  of  that  great  society,  the 
church,  which,  under  the  name  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,  our  Lord  had  himself,  not  established,  but 
predicted.  The  two  remaining  stages  are  represented 
by  the  Gospel  of  St.  John  and  apostolical  epistles 
respectively.  The  one  may  be  regarded  as  crowning 
the  Synoptical  Gospels,  and  the  other  the  acts  of  the 
apostles.  For  the  apostolic  epistles,  together  with  the 
apocalypse,  both  exhibit  in  detail  the  nature  and  work- 
ings of  the  Christian  society,  and  supply  the  most  com- 
prehensive model  of  that  practical  instruction  which 
was  given  by  the  earlisst  and  greatest  fathers  of  the 
church. 


8o  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

The  Gospel  of  St.  John,  on  the  other  hand,  supplies 
a  fourth  biography  of  our  Lord.  It  was  certainly 
given  to  the  church,  according  to  the  general  judgment 
of  Christendom,  after  the  three  other  Gospels ;  and  it 
also  presents  the  teaching  of  our  Saviour  under  a  new 
aspect,  much  more  doctrinal  and  also  more  abstract, 
than  that  which  it  bears  in  the  works  of  the  Synoptical 
writers,  to  whose  compositions  it  adds  little  in  matters 
of  fact,  unless  when  special  teaching  was  connected 
with  them,  or,  when  as  in  the  two  closing  chapters  the 
evangelist  had  to  record  circumstances  immediately 
connected  with  the  foundation  of  the  church. 

But  why  should  it  be  incredible,  or  even  strange, 
that  of  any  teaching  whatever,  much  more  than  of 
such  marvellous  teaching  as  our  Lord's,  some  ele- 
ments should  pass  more  easily  into  some  minds,  and 
others  into  other  minds  of  a  different  complexion 
or  affinity?  The  disciple  "whom  Jesus  loved,"  has 
given  us  the  fullest  and  deepest  picture  of  his  love ; 
and,  together  with  his  love,  of  his  person.  But  it 
has  been  justly  remarked  by  Dean  Alford,  that  there 
are  scattered  over  the  pages  of  the  Synoptics  a  certain 
number  of  passages,  which  are  in  precise  correspond- 
ence with  the  general  strain  of  St.  John. 

And  it  cannot  be  too  carefully  borne  in  mind,  that 
while  St.  John  discloses  to  us  a  more  inward  aspect 
of  the  doctrine  of  our  Lord,  and  supplies  many  propo- 
sitions that  we  could  not  directly  gather  from  his  pre- 


THE  HOLY  SCRIPTURES.  81 

decessors,  the  moral  and  practical  bearings  of  the  Four 
Evangelists  are  in  close  and  thorough  correspondence. 
They  have  the  very  same  ethical  basis,  and  they  go  to 
produce  the  very  same  frame  of  mind  and  course  of 
action,  and  by  this  very  fact,  the  case  of  the  Gospels 
is  forever  separated  from  any  true  analogy  with  the 
rival  representations  of  Socrates  in  the  works  of  Plato, 
and  of  Xenophon  respectively,  where  the  ethical  bear- 
ings of  the  two  systems  appear  to  be  widely  different, 
if  not  altogether  irreconcilable. 

The  communication  of  our  Lord's  life,  discourses, 
and  actions  to  believers,  by  means  of  the  Four  Gospels 
was  so  arranged,  in  the  order  of  God's  providence,  that 
they  should  be  first  supplied  with  biographies  of  him 
which  have  for  their  staple  his  miracles  and  his  ethical 
teaching,  while  the  mere  doctrinal  and  abstract  portion 
of  his  instructions  was  a  later  addition  to  the  patri- 
mony of  the  Christian  Church. 

XLIII. 

A  leading  feature  in  almost  all  the  parables  of  our 
Lord  is  the  social  and  collective  aspect  of  Christianity, 
incorporated  with  what  the  Gospels  ordinarily  call  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.  The  parables  are  so  contrived 
that  without  explaining  in  detail  the  constitution  of 
that  kingdom,  they  familiarly  impress  the  mind  with 
its  idea ;  witk  the  image  of  some  scheme  or  system  into 


82  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

which  men  were  to  be  brought,  so  that  they  should 
habitually  live  in  it,  and  that  they  should  ultimately  be 
judged  by  the  laws  appointed  for  its  government.  The 
kingdom  as  well  as  the  kingship,  the  appointment  of  a 
new  dispensation  of  brotherhood  among  men,  as  well 
as  the  supremacy  of  our  Lord  in  that  brotherhood, 
were  thus,  as  it  were,  things  sown  and  stored  in  the 
mind  of  the  apostles  to  abide  their  time  ;  like  the  spark 
laid  up  in  ashes  to  await  the  moment  when  it  should 
be  kindled  into  flame. 

XLIV. 

No  poetry,  no  philosophy,  no-  art  of  Greece,  ever 
embraced,  in  its  most  soaring  and  widest  conceptions, 
that  simple  law  of  love  towards  God  and  towards  our 
neighbor  on  which  "  two  commandments  hang  all  the 
law  and  the  prophets,"  and  which  supplied  the  basis 
of  the  new  dispensation. 

There  is  one  history,  and  that  the  most  touching  and 
most  profound  of  all,  for  which  we  should  search  in 
vain  through  all  the  pages  of  the  classics  —  I  mean 
the  history  of  the  human  soul  in  its  relations  with  its 
Maker ;  the  history  of  its  sin,  and  grief,  and  death,  and 
of  the  way  of  its  recovery  to  hope  and  life,  and  to 
enduring  joy.  For  the  exercises  of  strength  and  skill, 
for  the  achievements  and  for  the  enchantments  of 
wit,  of  eloquence,  of  art,  of  genius,  for  the  imperial 


THE  HOLY  SCRIPTURES.  83 

games  of  politics  and  war  —  let  us  seek  them  on  the 
shores  of  Greece.  But  if  the  first  among  the  problems 
of  life  be  how  to  establish  the  peace,  and  restore  the 
balance  of  our  inward  being  ;  if  the  highest  of  all  con- 
ditions in  the  existence  of  the  creature  be  his  aspect 
towards  the  God  to  whom  he  owes  his  being,  and  in 
whose  great  hand  he  stands  ;  then  let  us  make  our 
search  elsewhere.  All  the  wonders  of  the  Greek  civi- 
lization heaped  together  are  less  wonderful  than  is 
the  single  Book  of  Psalms. 

XLV. 

Divine  truth,  as  it  is  contained  in  the  gospel,  is 
addressed  to  the  wants  and  uses  of  a  nature  not  simple 
but  manifold  ;  and  is  manifold  itself.  Though  depend- 
ent upon  one  principle,  it  consists  of  many  parts ;  and 
in  order  to  preserve  reciprocally  the  due  place  and 
balance  of  those  parts,  means  that  we  call  human  are 
available,  as  well  as  means  more  obviously  divine ; 
and  secular  forms,  and  social  influences,  all  adjusted 
by  one  and  the  same  governor  of  the  world,  are  made 
to  serve  the  purposes,  that  have  their  highest  expres- 
sion in  the  Kingdom  of  Grace. 

XLVI. 
Precious  truths,  and  laws  of  relative  right  and  the 


84  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

brotherhood  of  man,  such  as  the  wisdom  of  heathen- 
ism scarcely  dreamed  of  and  could  never  firmly  grasp, 
the  gospel  has  made  to  be  part  of  our  common  inheri- 
tance, common  as  the  sunlight  that  warms  us,  and  as 
the  air  we  breathe.  Sharp  though  our  divisions  in 
belief  maybe,  they  have  not  cut  so  deep  as  to  prevent, 
or  as  perceptibly  to  impair,  the  recognition  of  these 
great  outlines  and  fences  of  moral  action.  It  is  far 
better  for  us  to  trust  to  the  operations  of  these  our 
common  principles  and  feelings,  and  to  serve  our 
Master  together  in  that  wherein  we  are  as  one,  rather 
than  in  aiming  at  a  standard  theoretically  higher,  to 
set  out  with  a  breach  of  the  great  commandment, 
which  forms  the  groundwork  of  all  relative  duties,  and 
to  refuse  to  do  as  we  would  be  done  by. 

XLVII. 

The  history  of  one  country  may  afford  useful  lessons 
to  the  authorities  of  another.  In  the  annals  of  the 
reign  of  Charles  I.  of  England,  we  have  an  instance 
of  an  ancient  throne  occupied  by  a  monarch  of  rare 
personal  endowments.  He  was  devout,  chaste,  affec- 
tionate, humane,  generous,  refined  ;  a  patron  of  letters 
and  of  art,  without  the  slightest  tinge  of  cruelty,  though 
his  ideas  were  those  of  a  "  pure  monarchy ;  "  frank  and 
sincere,  too,  in  his  personal  character,  but  unhappily 
believing  that,  under  the  pressure  of  State  necessity 


SINCERITY,  85 

such  as  he  might  judge  it,  his  pledges  to  his  people 
need  not  be  kept.  That  king  (upon  whose  refined  figure 
and  lineaments,  more  happily  immortalized  for  us  by 
Vandyke  than  those  of  any  other  of  our  sovereigns, 
to  this  day  few  Englishmen  can  look  without  emotion) 
saw  his  cause  ruined,  in  despite  of  a  loyalty  and  enthu- 
siasm sustaining  him,  such  as  now  is  a  pure  vision  of 
the  past.  It  was  not  ruined  by  the  strength  of  the 
anti-monarchical  or  puritanical  factions,  nor  even  by 
his  predilections  for  absolutism  ;  but  by  that  one  sad 
and  miserable  feature  of  insincerity,  which  prevented 
the  general  rally  of  his  well-disposed  and  sober- 
minded  subjects  round  him.  till  the  time  had  passed, 
the  commonwealth  had  been  launched  down  the  slide 
of  revolution,  and  those  violent  and  reckless  fanatics 
had  gained  the  upper  hand,  who  left  the  foul  stain  of 
his  blood  on  the  good  name  of  England. 

And  why  should  I  not  advert  to  a  lesson  in  our  own 
times  ?  King  Ernest  of  Hanover  is  gathered  to  his 
fathers.  When  he  went  from  England  in  1837  to  as- 
sume the  German  crown,  he  was  the  butt  and  by-word 
of  liberalism  in  all  its  grades ;  and  among  the  profes- 
sors of  the  conservative  opinions,  which  he  maintained 
in  their  sharpest  form,  few,  indeed,  were  those  hardy 
enough  to  own  that  prince  as  politically  their  kin; 
while  Hanover,  misled  as  it  afterwards  appeared,  by 
the  freedom  of  English  criticisms,  received  him  with 
more  dread  than  affection.  Fourteen  years  elapse. 


86  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

He  passes  unshaken  through  the  tempest  of  a  revolu- 
tion, that  rocks  or  shatters  loftier  thrones  than  his. 
He  dies  amidst  the  universal  respect,  and  the  general 
confidence,  and  attachment,  of  his  subjects.  He  leaves 
to  his  son  a  well-established  government  and  an  hon- 
ored name ;  and  in  England  itself,  the  very  organs  of 
democratic  feeling  and  opinion,  are  seen  strewing  the 
flowers  of  their  honest  panegyric  on  his  tomb.  And 
why  ?  The  answer  is  brief,  but  emphatic  •  because  he 
said  what  he  meant,  and  did  what  he  said.  Doubtless 
his  political  education  had  been  better  than  men 
thought,  and  had  left  deeper  traces  upon  him ;  but  his 
unostentatious  sincerity  was  his  treasure  ;  it  was  "  the 
barrel  of  meal  that  wasted  not,  the  cruise  of  oil  that 
did  not  fail." 

XLVIII. 

The  maxim  that  Christianity  is  a  matter  not  ab- 
stract, but  referable  throughout  to  human  action,  is 
not  only  an  important,  but  a  vital  part  of  the  demon- 
stration, that  we  are  bound  by  the  laws  of  our  nature, 
to  give  a  hearing  to  its  claims.  We  shall  therefore  do 
well  to  substantiate  it  to  our  consciousness  by  some 
further  mention  of  its  particulars.  Let  us  then  recol- 
lect that  we  have  not  merely  the  general  principle  of 
doing  all  to  the  glory  of  God,  declared  by  it  in  genera] 
terms :  but  this  is  illustrated  by  reference  to  the  com- 


DUTY.  87 

mon  actions  of  eating  and  drinking.  "Whether  we 
eat  or  drink,  or  whatsoever  ye  do,"  thus  the  passage 
runs,  "  do  all  to  the  glory  of  God." 

Now,  surely,  one  should  have  said,  if  any  acts  what- 
ever could  have  been  exempt  from  the  demands  of  this 
comprehensive  law,  they  should  have  been  those  func- 
tions of  animal  life,  respecting  which,  as  to  their  sub- 
stance, we  have  no  free  choice,  since  they  are  among 
the  absolute  conditions  of  our  physical  existence.  And 
by  the  unbeliever  it  might  consistently  be  argued  that 
inasmuch  as  food  and  drink  are  thus  necessary,  it  is 
impossible  to  conceive  that  any  question  relating  to 
the  different  kinds  of  them  (unless  connected  with 
their  several  aptitudes  for  maintaining  life  and  health, 
which  is  not  at  all  in  the  apostle's  view)  can  be  of 
any  moral  moment.  But  the  allegation  of  Scripture  is 
directly  to  a  contrary  effect ;  and  apprises  us  that 
iiven  such  a  matter  as  eating  or  refraining  from  meat, 
has  a  spiritual  character.  "  He  that  eateth,  eateth  to 
the  Lord,  for  he  giveth  God  thanks;  and  he  that 
eateth  not  to  the  Lord,  he  eateth  not  and  giveth  God 
thanks.  For  none  of  us  liveth  to  himself,  and  no  man 
dieth  to  himself." 

Not  ouly  (as  the  entire  passage  seems  to  mean) 
where  a  special  scruple  may  be  raised  by  the  facts  of 
idol  worship  ;  not  only  in  the  avoidance  of  pampered 
tastes  and  gross  excesses,  but  in  the  simple  act  of 
taking  food,  the  religious  sense  has  a  place.  The 


88  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

maintainance  of  life,  though  it  is  a  necessity,  is  also  a 
duty  and  a  blessing.  And  to  the  same  effect  is  the 
declaration  of  our  Lord  :  "  But  I  say  unto  you  that 
eveuy  idle  word,  that  men  shall  speak,  they  shall  give 
account  thereof  in  the  day  of  judgment."  The  "  idle 
word  "  is  perhaps  the  very  slightest  and  earliest  form 
of  voluntary  action.  Consider  the  fertility  of  the 
mind,  and  the  rapidity  of  its  movements  :  how  many 
thoughts  pass  over  it  without  or  against  the  will ;  how 
easily  they  find  their  way  into  the  idle,  that  is,  not 
the  mischievous  or  ill-intended,  but  merely  the  uncon- 
sidered  word.  So  lightly  and  easily  is  it  born,  that 
the  very  forms  of  ancient  speech  seem  to  designate 
it  as  if  it  were  self-created,  and  not  the  offspring  of 
a  mental  act,  and  as  we  say,  such  and  such  an  expres- 
sion "  escaped  him."  Thus  then  it  appears  that,  at 
the  very  first  and  lowest  stage  of  scarcely  voluntary 
action,  the  almighty  God  puts  in  his  claim.  In  this 
way  he  acquaints  us  that  everything,  in  which  our 
faculties  can  consciously  be  made  ministers  of  good 
or  evil,  shall  become  a  subject  of  reckoning,  doubtless 
of  just  and  fatherly  reckoning,  in  the  great  account 
of  the  day  of  judgment. 

Further,  it  appeared  that  there  are  many  acts,  of 
which  the  external  form  must  be  the  same,  whether 
they  are  done  by  Christians,  or  by  others  j  as  for  in- 
stance those  very  acts  of  satisfying  hunger  and  thirst, 


DUTY.  89 

of  which  we  have  spoken.  If  these,  then,  are  capable, 
as  has  been  shown,  of  being  brought  under  the  law 
of  duty,  a  different  character  must  attach  to  them  in 
consequence  ;  they  must  be  influenced:  if  not  intrin- 
sically, yet  at  least  in  their  relation  to  something  else, 
by  their  being  referred  to  that  standard.  The  form  of 
the  deed,  the  thing  done,  is,  perhaps,  as  we  have  seen, 
the  same  ;  but  the  action,  the  exercise  of  the  mind  in 
ordering  or  doing  it  is  different.  It  differs,  for  exam- 
ple, in  the  motive  of  obedience ;  in  the  end,  which  is 
the  glory  of  God ;  in  the  temper,  which  is  that  of 
trust,  humility  and  thankfulness.  Accordingly  it  ap- 
pears that  Christianity  aims  not  only  at  adjusting  our 
acts,  but  also  our  way  of  acting,  to  a  certain  standard ; 
that  it  reduces  the  whole  to  a  certain  mental  habit, 
and  imbues  and  pervades  the  whole  with  a  certain 
temper. 


There  is  no  breathing  man,  to  whom  the  alternatives 
of  right  and  wrong  are  not  continually  present.  To 
one  they  are  less,  perhaps  infinitely  less,  complicated 
than  to  another ;  but  they  pervade  the  whole  tissue  o( 
every  human  life.  In  order  to  meet  these  we  must  be 
supplied  with  certain  practical  judgments.  It  matters 
not  that  there  may  have  existed  particular  persons, 
as  children,  for  instance,  who  have  never  entertained 


90  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

these  judgments  in  the  abstract  at  all ;  nor  that  many 
act  blindly,  and  at  hap-bazard,  which  is  simply  a  con- 
tempt of  duty;  nor  that  there  may  be  another  class 
into  whose  compositions  by  long  use  some  of  them 
are  so  ingrained,  that  they  operate  with  the  rapidity 
and  certainity  of  instinct.  Setting  these  aside,  it  re- 
mains true  of-  all  persons  of  developed  understanding 
that  there  are  many  questions  bearing  on  practice, 
with  regard  to  which,  in  order  to  discharge  their  duty 
rightly,  they  must  have  conclusions,  and  these  not 
necessarily  numerous  in  every  case,  but  in  every  case 
of  essential  importance,  so  that  they  may  be  termed 
"  a  savor  of  life  unto  life,  or  a  savor  of  death  unto 
death." 

XLIX. 

Obligation  may  be  qualified  or  suspended  in  the 
pursuit  of  abstract  truth ;  so  much  so,  that  even  the 
contravention  of  it  need  not  involve  a  breach  of  moral 
duty.  But  the  case  is  very  different  when  we  deal 
with  those  portions  of  truth  that  supply  the  conditions 
of  conduct.  To  avoid  all  detail,  such  as  may  dissi- 
pate the  force  of  the  main  considerations,  is  material. 
Let  it,  therefore  be  observed  that  there  is  one  propo- 
sition in  which  the  whole  matter,  as  it  is  revelant  to 
human  duty,  may  be  summed  up  :  that  all  our  works 
alike,  inward  and  outward,  great  and  small,  ought  to 


DUTY.  91 

be  done  in  obedience  to  God.  Now  this  is  a  proposi- 
tion manifestly  tendered  to  us  by  that  system  of  reli- 
gion which  is  called  Christianity,  and  which  purports 
to  be  a  revelation  of  the  divine  will.  It  is  the  first 
and  great  commandment  of  the  Gospel,  that  we  shall 
love  God  with  the  whole  heart,  and  mind,  and  soul, 
and  strength  ;  and  whatsoever  we  do,  we  are  to  do  all 
to  the  glory  of  God. 


A  solemn  and  overpowering  sense  of  duty,  and  that 
mixture  of  profound  humility  with  manly  resolution, 
which  such  a  sense  best  engenders  and  sustains  ;  these 
are,  we  believe,  the  instruments,  by  which  the  divine 
grace  develops  in  the  conduct,  even  amidst  the  most 
difficult  passages  of  life,  the  principles  of  unchangeable 
justice. 


LI. 


It  is  not  because  a  brother  does  many  things  which 
we  may  think  wrong,  or  which  may  in  themselves  de- 
serve the  heaviest  punishment,  that  he  is  to  be  dis- 
owned and  renounced  :  the  obligation  to  treat  him  as  a 
brother  uninterruptedly  subsists,  it  is  limited  only  by 
our  power  to  render  kindly  offices,  and  his  capacity  to 
receive  them ;  and  the  active  exercise  of  its  functions 


92  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

can  never  be  suspended,  except  only  when  and  in  so 
far  as  he  refuses  to  accept  them,  or  is  incapable  of 
profiting  by  them. 

LII. 

If  we  see  the  promise  of  greater  joy  where  the  finger 
of  God  points  us  not,  either  that  promise  is  a  phantom 
of  magical  illusion,  or  if  it  be  true  joy,  it  is  ours,  with- 
held from  us  for  a  time,  in  order  that,  by  wanting  it,  we 
may  acquire  the  dispositions  necessary  for  its  full 
appreciation ;  and,  in  due  season  it  will  be  ministered 
abundantly  to  those  who  are  better  pleased  to  await  the 
accomplishment  of  the  divine  operations,  than  to  en- 
deavor to  precipitate  their  determined  issues.  The 
same  lesson  which  is  applied  to  the  repression  of  fleshly 
appetites,  must  also  be  brought  to  bear  against  appe- 
tite in  its  higher  forms,  and  must  teach  those  who  crave 
for  spiritual  luxuries,  that  they  are  not  living  here  for 
enjoyment,  but  for  exercise ;  not  for  the  prize,  but  for 
the  battle  :  that  whatsoever  winged  moments  and  glances, 
whatsoever  crumbs  and  morsels,  and  merciful  foretastes 
of  bliss,  may  be  imparted  to  the  pilgrims  through  the 
wilderness,  are  only  given  to  stimulate  them  in  their 
work ;  that  they  are  poison,  in  so  far  as  they  have  any 
other  effect  than  to  quicken  and  invigorate  its  perform- 
ance ;  and  that  that  work  necessarily  is,  to  walk  in  the 
path  which  God  has  hounded  for  us  on  this  side  and  on 


DUTY.  93 

that,  and  to  quell  every  rising  murmur  and  the  dispo- 
sition to  repine. 

LIU. 

Moral  action  is  conversant  almost  wholly  with  evi- 
dence, which  in  itself  is  only  probable.  So  that  a  right 
understanding  of  the  proper  modes  of  dealing  with  it 
is  the  foundation  of  all  ethical  studies.  Without  this, 
it  must  either  be  dry  and  barren  dogmatism,  or  else  a 
mass  of  floating  quicksands.  Duty  may  indeed  be 
done,  without  having  been  studied  in  the  abstract ;  but. 
if  it  is  to  be  studied,  it  must  be  studied  under  its  true 
laws  and  conditions  as  a  science.  Now,  probability  is 
the  nearly  universal  form  or  condition,  under  which 
these  laws  are  applied :  and  therefore  a  sound  view 
of  it  is  not  indeed  ethical  knowledge  itself,  but  it 
is  the  organon,  by  means  of  which  that  knowledge 
ii  to  be  rightly  handled.  He  who,  by  his  reason- 
ings, at  once  teaches  and  inures  men  to  the  methods 
of  handling  probable  or  imperfect  evidence,  gives 
them  exercise,  and  by  exercise  strength  in  the  most 
important  of  all  those  rules  of  daily  life,  which  are 
connected  with  the  intellectual  habits. 

There  are  persons,  certainly  not  among  the  well- 
trained  and  well-informed,  who  would  attach  a  sus- 
picion of  dishonesty  to  any  doctrine,  which  should 
give  a  warrant  to  acts  of  moral  choice  upon  evidence 


94  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

admitted  to  be  less  than  certain.  Their  disposition 
is  deserving  of  respect,  when  it  takes  its  rise  from 
that  simple  unsuspecting  confidence  in  the  strength 
and  clearness  of  truth,  which  habitual  obedience 
engenders.  It  is  less  so  when  we  see  in  it  a  tim- 
idity of  mind,  which  shrinks  from  measuring  the 
whole  extent  of  the  charge  that  it  has  pleased  God 
to  lay  upon  us  as  moral  agents,  and  will  not  tread 
even  in  the  path  of  duty,  upon  any  ground  that 
yields  beneath  the  pressure  of  the  foot.  The  desire 
for  certainty,  in  this  form,  enervates  and  unmans 
the  character.  Persons  so  affected  can  scarcely  either 
search  with  effect  for  duties  to  be  done,  or  accept 
them  when  offered,  and  almost  forced  upon  their 
notice. 

LIV. 

Duty,  or  the  deon,  is  that  which  binds.  Surely,  if 
there  is  one  idea  more  pointedly  expressive  than 
another  of  the  character  of  the  ethical  teaching  of 
Christianity,  if  there  is  one  lesson  more  pointedly 
derivable  than  another  from  the  contemplation  of 
its  model  in  our  blessed  Lord,  it  is  the  idea  and 
the  lesson  that  we  are  to  deny  the  claim  of  mere 
human  will  to  be  a  serious  ground  of  moral  action, 
and  to  reduce  it  to  its  proper  function,  that  of 
freely  uniting  itself  with  the  will  of  God. 


TRUTH.  95 

This  function  is  one  of  subordination :  one  which 
manifestly  it  never  can  perform,  so  long  as  it  is  to 
be  recognized  as  something  entitled  to  operate  in 
determining  moral  choice,  and  yet  extrinsic  and  addi- 
tional to,  and  therefore  separate  from,  His  commands. 

Again,  what  can  be  more  unnatural,  not  to  say 
more  revolting,  than  to  set  up  any  system  of  rights 
or  privileges  in  moral  action,  apart  from  duties  ? 
How  can  we,  without  departing  from  our  integrity 
before  God,  allege  the  right  of  our  natural  freedom 
as  sufficing  to  counterbalance  any,  even  the  smallest 
likelihood  that  his  will  for  us  lies  in  a  particular 
direction  ?  Scripture,  surely,  gives  no  warrant  for 
such  a  theory;  nor  the  sense  of  Christian  tradition. 
Is  it  not  hard  to  reconcile  the  bare  statement  of  it 
with  the  common  sense  of  duty  and  of  honesty,  as 
it  belongs  to  our  race  at  large? 


LV. 


That  which  is  the  truth  teaches  the  doctrine  of 
love  to  all  persons,  but  by  virtue  of  that  love  it 
teaches  also  to  hate  the  errors  which  mislead,  and 
the  delusions  which  blind  them.  The  truth  therefore 
is  necessarily  exclusive  of  its  opposite ;  and  to  pro- 
pose a  peace  between  them  is  simply  a  disguised 
mode  of  proposing  to  truth  suicide,  and  obtaining 
for  falsehood  victory.  For  truth  itself,  when  not  held 


96  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

as  truth,  but  as  a  mere  prize  in  the  lottery  of  opin- 
ions, loses  its  virtue ;  that,  namely,  of  uniting  us  to  its 
fountain;  since  it  is  not  by  any  mere  abstractions, 
whether  false  or  true,  that  we  are  to  be  healed,  but 
by  being  placed  in  vital  union,  through  the  joint 
medium  of  His  truth  and  his  grace,  with  the  source 
of  healing. 

LVI. 

It  is  only  by  feeling  censure  to  be  painful,  that 
he  who  delivers  it,  can  neutralize  its  inward  perils 
to  himself ;  it  is  only  by  persevering  with  his  work 
in  despite  of  that  pain,  that  he  can  acquit  his  obli- 
gations to  truth  which  demand  of  us  that  we  shall 
prize  her  integrity  beyond  all  things  else ;  and  that  he 
can  with  a  safe  conscience  proceed  to  note  those  excel- 
lences, which  might  themselves  have  become  to  others 
very  snares  and  pitfalls,  had  he  not  faithfully  declared 
the  fatal  companionship  in  which  they  stand. 

LVI  I. 

We  are  bound  to  avoid  occasions  of  anger ;  and  yet, 
for  the  vindication  of  truth,  it  may  be  a  duty  to  enter 
into  debates,  which  we  know  from  experience  will  stir 
our  passions  more  or  less.  If  we  look  merely  at  the 
likelihood  of  that  excitement,  we  ought  to  refrain :  but 


TRUTH.  97 

if  we  look  onwards  to  the  purpose  in  view,  it  makes 
the  other  scale  descend. 

LVIII. 

We  live  in  times  when  the  whole  nature  of  our  re- 
lation to  the  unseen  world  is  widely,  eagerly  and  assid- 
uously questioned.  Sometimes  we  are  told  of  general 
laws,  so  concerned  as  to  be  practically  independent 
either  of  a  lawgiver  or  a  judge.  Sometimes  of  a 
necessity  working  all  things  to  uniform  results,  but 
seeming  to  crush  and  to  bury  under  them  the  ruins  of 
our  will,  our  freedom,  our  personal  responsibility. 
Sometimes  of  a  private  judgment,  which  we  are  to  hold 
upon  the  hard  condition  of  taking  nothing  upon  trust 
of  passing  by,  at  the  outset  of  our  mental  life,  the 
whole  preceding  education  of  the  world,  of  owning  no 
debt  to  those  who  have  gone  before  without  a  regular 
process  of  proof,  in  a  word  of  beginning  anew,  each 
man  for  himself :  a  privilege  which  I  had  thought  was 
restricted  to  the  lower  orders  of  creation.  Such  are 
the  fancies  which  go  abroad.  Such  are  the  clouds 
which  career  in  heaven,  and  pass  between  us  and  the 
sun  ;  and  make  men  idly  think,  that  what  they  see 
not,  is  not ;  and  blot  the  prospects  of  what  is,  in  so 
many  and  such  true  respects,  a  happy  and  a  hopeful 
age. 

It  is  I  think  an  observation  of  St.  Augustine,  that 


98  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

those  periods  are  critical  and  formidable,  when  the 
power  of  putting  questions  runs  greatly  in  advance  of 
the  pains  to  answer  them.  Such  appears  to  be,  in 
regard  to  the  province  of  the  unseen,  the  period  in 
which  we  live.  And  all  among  us,  who  are  called  in 
any  manner  to  move  in  the  world  of  thought,  may  well 
ask,  who  is  sufficient  for  these  things  ?  Who  can  with 
just  and  firm  hand  sever  the  transitory  from  the  durable, 
and  the  accidental  from  the  essential,  in  old  opinions  ? 
Who  can  combine,  in  the  measures  which  reason  would 
prescribe,  reverence  and  gratitude  to  the  past  with  a 
sense  of  the  new  claims,  new  means,  new  duties  of  the 
present  ?  Who  can  be  stout  and  earnest  to  do  battle 
for  the  truth,  and  yet  hold  sacred,  as  he  ought,  the 
freedom  of  inquiry,  and  cherish,  as  he  ought,  a  chiv- 
alry of  controversy  like  the  ancient  chivalry  of  arms  ? 

LIX. 

The  doctrine  that  we  are  bound  by  the  laws  of  our 
nature  to  follow  probable  truth,  rests  upon  the  most 
secure  of  all  grounds  for  practical  purposes,  if  indeed 
the  consent  which  accepts  it  is  in  fact  so  widely  spread 
in  the  usual  doings  of  mankind,  that  it  may  well  be 
termed  universal.  The  very  circumstance  that  there 
are  exceptions  confirms  the  rule,  provided  it  may  be 
maintained  that  the  exceptions  are  of  a  certain  kind. 
For  conversely,  if  there  be  a  practice  invariably  fol- 


TRUTH.  99 

lowed  by  those  who  are  known  to  be  wise  in  kindred 
subject-matter,  it  is  often  doubtful  whether  this  can  be 
said  to  derive  any  positive  confirmation  from  the  con- 
current course  of  persons  who  are  known  to  be  of  an 
opposite  character.     Again,  if   there   be  an  universal 
agreement   concerning    any  proposition    among   those 
who  have  no  sinister  bias,  the  fact  that  others  who  are 
known  to  have  such  a  bias  differ  from  them,  does  not 
impair  their  authority,  but  may  even  appear  rather  to 
constitute   an    additional    evidence  of   their  being    in 
the  right.     Now  this    is  exactly  the  kind  of   consent, 
which  may  justly  be  said  to  obtain  among  men  with 
regard  to  the  following  of  probable  truth.     For  every 
one    acts  upon  affirmative   evidence,  however   inferior 
to  certainty,  unless  he  be  either  extremely  deficient  in 
common  understanding,  or  so  biased  the  other  way  by 
his  desires  as  to  be  incapable  of  an  upright  view  of  the 
case  before  him. 


LX. 


The  "  word  of  truth  "  should  be  "  rightly  divided." 
The  several  parts  of  religion  ought  to  be  exhibited 
in  their  due  proportions ;  the  severance  of  its  limbs  is 
fatal  to  its  vitality;  the  license  to  teach  half-truths 
is  all  that  falsehood  can  desire ;  and,  in  point  of  fact, 
all  the  havoc  made  by  error  has  been  effected  by  the 
use  of  this  very  method.  The  teaching  of  half-truths 


ioo  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

is  indefensible  and  mischievous  when  they  are  taught 
as  whole  truths.  But  there  is  an  order  and  succession 
in  the  process  of  instruction  :  and  that  which  is  not 
good  as  a  resting-place  may  be  most  excellent  and 
most  necessary  as  a  stage  in  an  onward  journey.  It 
was  not  at  the  commencement  of  his  career,  but  it  was 
on  the  very  evening  of  his  passion,  that  our  Lord  him- 
self was  pleased  to  say  to  his  disciples,  "  I  have  many 
things  to  say  unto  you,  but  ye  cannot  bear  them  now." 
Indeed,  the  negation  of  this  principle  would  throw 
every  established  method  of  acquiring  knowledge  into 
confusion ;  and,  if  enforced  and  persevered  in,  would 
condemn  the  human  understanding  to  a  hopeless  and 
imbecile  sterility.  For  the  doctrine,  that  the  whole  of 
a  subject  must  be  presented  at  once,  can  only  be  re- 
duced to  practice  by  excluding  from  view  all  that  is 
really  elevated  and  advanced,  by  dwelling  perpetually 
in  the  circle  of  the  merest  rudiments,  and  perhaps  by 
presenting  these  rudiments  in  forms  which  are  at  once 
extravagant  and  stunted. 

LXI. 

I  surmise  that  sensible  men,  upon  surveying  the  field 
of  religious  action  during  the  last  half-century,  will 
consider,  each  from  his  own  point  of  view,  that  the 
cause  of  truth  and  right  has  had  both  its  victories  to 
record,  and  its  defeats  to  mourn  over.  It  is  a  blessed 


LIBERTY.  lor 

thing  to  think  that  behind  the  blurred  aspect  of  that 
cause,  which  we  see  as  in  a  glass  darkly,  there  is  the 
eye  of  One  to  whom  all  is  light,  and  who  subdues  to 
his  own  high  and  comprehensive,  and  perhaps  for  that 
reason  remote  purposes  all  the  partial  and  transitory 
phenomena,  with  which  we  are  so  sorely  perplexed. 
The  systems  or  forms,  under  which  we  conceive  the 
truth,  may  each  present  its  several  colors,  hereafter  to 
be  blended  into  a  perfect  ray.  It  will  not  then  be  the 
most  boastful  or  the  most  aggressive  among  them  that 
will  be  found  to  be  the  least  refracted  from  the  lines 
of  the  perfect  truth.  It  will  be  the  one  which  shall 
best  have  performed  the  work  of  love,  and  shall  have 
effected  the  largest  dimunition  in  the  mass  of  sin  and 
sorrow  that  deface  a  world  which  came  so  fair  from 
the  hand  of  its  Maker.  Here,  there  is  opened  to  us 
a  noble  competition,  wherein,  each  adhering  firmly  to 
what  he  has  embraced  humbly,  we  may  all  co-operate 
for  the  glory  of  God  with  a  common  aim  ;  and,  every 
one  according  what  he  asks,  and  according  it  as  freely 
as  he  asks  it,  all  may  strive  to  cultivate  the  unity  of  the 
spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace. 

LXII. 

Regularity,  combination,  and  order,  especially  when 
joined  with  publicity,  have  of  themselves  a  marvellous 
virtue ;  they  tend  to  subordinate  the  individual  to  the 


102  THE  MIGHT  OF   RIGHT. 

mass,  they  enlarge  by  healthy  exercise  the  better  and 
nobler  parts  of  our  nature,  and  depress  the  poorer  and 
meaner ;  they  make  man  more  a  creature  of  habits,  and 
less  of  mere  impulse ;  they  weaken  the  relative  influ- 
ence of  the  present,  by  strengthening  his  hold  upon 
the  future  and  the  past,  and  their  hold  upon  him.  By 
gathering,  too,  into  organized  forms  the  various  influ- 
ences that  bear  sway  in  a  mixed  community,  and  leav- 
ing them  to  work  within  prescribed  channels,  those 
which  are  good  acquire  the  multiplied  strength  of 
union,  while  the  bad  neutralize  one  another  by  recipro- 
cal elimination.  It  is  a  great  and  noble  secret,  that  of 
constitutional  freedom,  which  has  given  to  England  the 
largest  liberties,  with  the  steadiest  throne,  and  the  most 
vigorous  executive,  in  Christendom.  I  confess  to  my 
strong  faith  in  the  virtue  of  this  principle.  I  have 
lived  now  for  many  years  in  the  midst  of  the  hot- 
test and  noisiest  of  its  work-shops,  and  have  seen 
that  amidst  the  clatter  and  the  din  a  ceaseless  la- 
bor is  going  on ;  stubborn  matter  is  reduced  to 
obedience,  and  the  brute  powers  of  society,  like  the 
fire,  air,  water,  and  mineral  of  nature,  are  with  clamor 
indeed,  but  also  with  might,  educated  and  shaped  into 
the  most  refined  and  regular  forms  of  usefulness  for 
man.  I  am  deeply  convinced  that  among  us  all  sys- 
tems, whether  religious  or  political,  which  rest  on  a 
principle  of  absolutism,  must  of  necessity  be,  not 
indeed  tyrannical,  but  feeble  and  ineffective  systems ; 


LIBERTY.  103 

and  that  methodically  to  enlist  the  members  of  a  com- 
munity, with  due  regard  to  their  several  capacities,  in 
the  performance  of  its  public  duties,  is  the  way  to  make 
that  community  powerful  and  healthful,  to  give  a  firm 
seat  to  its  rulers,  and  to  engender  a  warm  and  intelli- 
gent devotion  in  those  beneath  their  sway. 

LXIII. 

As  with  property,  so  with  religious  freedom:  the 
rights  of  each  man  are  the  rights  of  his  neighbor ;  he 
that  defends  one  is  the  defender  of  all ;  and  he  that 
trespasses  on  one  assails  all.  And  in  these  matters 
the  mass  of  the  community  will  judge  fairly,  when 
once  the  facts  are  fairly  before  them,  however  they 
may  require  time  to  clear  their  view  of  the  case,  or 
however  they  may  occasionally  tread  awry.  Given,  I 
say,  these  two  conditions  first,  the  principle  of  civil 
equality  before  the  law,  and  secondly,  the  general 
desire  in  each  man  for  his  own  religious  freedom ; 
and  then  the  ultimate  recognition  of  such  freedom 
for  all  is  as  secure,  as  the  maintenance  of  such  equality. 

LXIV. 

The  free  expression  of  opinion,  as  our  experience 
has  taught  us,  is  the  safety-valve  of  passion.  That 
noise  of  the  rushing  steam,  when  it  escapes,  alarms  the 


ic4  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

timid;  but  it  is  the  sign  that  we  are  safe.  The  con- 
cession of  reasonable  privilege  anticipates  the  growth 
of  furious  appetite. 

LXV. 

We  cannot  change  the  profound  and  resistless  ten- 
dencies of  the  age  towards  religious  liberty.  It  is  our 
business  to  guide  and  control  their  application.  Do 
this  you  may.  But  to  endeavor  to  turn  them  back- 
wards is  the  sport  of  chilclren,  done  by  the  hands  of 
men ;  and  every  effort  you  may  make  in  that  direction 
will  recoil  upon  you  in  disaster  and  disgrace. 

LXVI. 

The  hydra  of  revolution  is  not  really  to  be  crushed 
by  the  attempt  to  crush,  or  even  by  momentary  success 
in  crushing,  under  the  name  of  revolution,  a  mixed 
and  heterogeneous  mass  of  influences,  feelings,  and 
opinions,  bound  together  absolutely  by  nothing  except 
repugnance  to  the  prevailing  rigor  and  corruptions. 
Viewed  as  mere  matter  of  policy,  this  is  simply  to 
undertake  the  service  of  enlistment  for  the  army  of  the 
foe.  It  is  a  certain  proposition  that,  when  a  govern- 
ment thus  treats  enmity  to  abuse  as  identical  with  pur- 
pose of  subversion,  it,  according  to  the  laws  of  our 
mixed  nature,  partially  amalgamates  the  two,  and  ful- 


LIBERTY.  105 

fils  at  length  its  own  miserable  predictions  in  its  own 
more  miserable  ruin. 

Surely,  however,  there  is  another  mode  of  procedure. 
It  is  to  examine  the  elements  of  which  the  aggregate 
force  apparently  hostile  to  a  government  is  composed, 
and  carefully  to  appreciate  their  differences  ;  to  meet 
—  or  at  least  to  give  an  earnest  of  honest  intention  to 
meet  —  the  objections  of  the  moderate  and  just,  by  the 
removal  of  what  causes  them  ;  to  have  some  tenderness 
even  for  the  scruples  of  the  weak ;  to  take  human 
nature  on  its  better  side  instead  of  perpetually  galling 
its  wounds  and  sores  ;  to  remember  that  violence  itself 
has  its  moments  of  remission  and  its  mollia  fandi  tcm- 
pora,  its  opportunities  of  honorable  access ;  and  thus 
to  draw  out  from  the  opposite  array  a  large  part  of  its 
numbers  and  its  energy,  a  far  larger  part  of  its  virtue, 
its  truth,  and  all  the  elements  of  permanent  vitality. 
It  may  then  be  found  that  no  other  means  are  left ; 
but  it  may  also  then  be  found  that  the  compass  of  the 
evil  is  so  reduced  by  the  preliminary  processes,  that  it 
is  wiser  and  better  to  carry  it  in  patience,  than  to  irri- 
tate the  system  by  a  sharp  excision.  If  unhappily  the 
risk  must  at  last  be  run,  and  anti-social  crime  visited 
with  the  punishment  which  is  its  due,  at  least  the  what 
and  the  why  will  then  be  plain,  and  we  shall  talk  some- 
thing better  than  pestilent  imposture  when  we  proclaim 
the  intention  to  crush  the  hydra  of  revolution,  or  vaunt 
of  having  crushed  it.  Nor  is  this  a  parade  of  human- 


io6  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT, 

ity ;  it  is  surely  rather  the  practical  rule  of  government, 
which  common  sense  dictates,  and  the  experience  of 
the  world  sustains. 

LXVII. 

Something  that  may  be  called  religionism,  rather 
than  religion,  has  led  us  for  the  most  part,  not  indeed 
to  deny  in  terms  that  God  has  been  and  is  the  God 
and  Father  and  Governor  of  the  whole  human  race,  as 
well  as  of  Jews  and  Christians,  yet  to  think  and  act 
as  if  his  providential  eye  and  care  had  been  confined 
in  ancient  times  to  the  narrow  valley  of  Jerusalem,  and 
since  the  Advent  to  the  Christian  pale ;  or  even  to 
something  at  our  own  arbitrary  will,  we  think  fit  so  to 
call.  But  surely  he,  who  cared  for  the  six-score  thou- 
sand persons  in  ancient  Nineveh,  that  could  not  dis- 
tinguish between  their  right  hand  and  their  left,  he 
without  whon\  not  a  sparrow  falls,  he  that  shapes, 
in  its  minutest  detail,  even  the  inanimate  world,  and 
clothes  the  lily  of  the  field  with  its  beauty  and  its 
grace,  he  never  forgot  those  sheep  of  his  in  the 
wilderness;  but  as,  on  the  one  hand,  he  solicited 
them,  and  bore  witness  to  them  of  himself,  by  never- 
ceasing  bounty  and  by  the  law  written  in  their  hearts 
so  on  the  other  hand  in  unseen  modes  he  used  them, 
as  he  is  always  using  us,  for  either  the  willing,  or  if 


PRO  VIDENCE.  107 

not  to  be  willing,  then  the  unconscious  or  unwilling, 
furtherance  and  accomplishment  of  his  designs. 

LXVIII. 

In  the  providential  government  there  are  diversities 
of  operations.  In  this  great  house,  there  are  vessels 
of  gold  and  silver,  vessels  of  wood  and  earth.  In  the 
sphere  of  common  experience,  we  see  some  human 
beings  live  and  die,  and  furnish  by  their  life  no  special 
lessons  visible  to  man,  but  only  that  general  teaching, 
in  elementary  and  simple  forms,  which  is  derivable 
from  every  particle  of  human  history.  Others  there 
have  been  who,  from  the  time  when  their  young  lives 
first,  as  it  were,  peeped  over  the  horizon,  seemed  at 
once  to 

"  Flame  in  the  forehead  of  the  morning  sky ; " 

whose  lengthening  years  have  been  but  one  growing 
splendor,  and  at  the  last  who 

"  Leave  a  lofty  name, 
A  light,  a  landmark,  on  the  cliffs  of  fame." 

Now,  it  is  not  in  the  general,  the  ordinary,  the  ele- 
mentary way,  but  it  is  in  a  high  and  special  sense,  that 
I  claim  for  ancient  Greece  a  marked,  appropriated,  dis- 
tinctive place  in  the  providential  order  of  the  world. 
....  Palestine  was  weak  and  despised,  always  ob- 
scure, oftentimes,  and  long  trodden  down  beneath  the 


io8  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

feet  of  imperious  masters.  On  the  other  hand,  Greece 
for  a  thousand  years, 

"  Confident  from  foreign  purposes," 

repelled  every  invader  from  her  shores.  Fostering  her 
strength  in  the  keen  air  of  freedom,  she  defied  and  at 
length  overthrew,  the  mightiest  of  existing  empires; 
and  when  finally  she  felt  the  resistless  grasp  of  the 
masters  of  all  the  world,  them  too,  at  the  very  moment 
of  her  subjugation,  she  herself  subdued  to  her  litera- 
ture, language,  arts,  and  manners.  Palestine  in  a 
word,  had  no  share  of  the  glories  of  our  race  ;  while 
they  blaze  on  every  page  of  the  history  of  Greece 
with  an  overpowering  splendor.  Greece  had  valor, 
policy,  renown,  genius,  wisdom,  wit,  she  had  all,  in  a 
word,  that  this  world  could  give  her  j  but  the  flowers 
of  Paradise,  which  blossom  at  the  best  but  thinly,  blos- 
somed in  Palestine  alone. 

And  yet,  as  the  lower  parts  of  our  bodily  organiza- 
tion are  not  less  material  than  the  higher  to  the 
safety  and  well-being  of  the  whole,  so  Christianity 
itself  was  not  ordained  to  a  solitary  existence  in  man, 
but  to  find  helps  meet  for  itself  in  the  legitimate  use 
of  every  faculty,  and  in  the  gradually  accumulated 
treasures  of  the  genius,  sagacity  and  industry  of  the 
human  family.  Besides  the  loftiest  part  of  the  work 
of  Providence,  entrusted  to  the  Hebrew  race,  there  was 
other  work  to  do,  and  it  was  done  elsewhere.  It  was 
requisite  to  make  ready  the  materials  not  only  of  a 


HUMANI7  Y.  109 

divine  renewal  and  of  a  moral  harmony  for  the  world, 
but  also  for  a  thorough  and  searching  culture  of  every 
power  and  gift  of  man  in  all  his  relations  to  the 
world  and  to  his  kind ;  so  as  to  lift  up  his  universal 
nature  to  the  level,  upon  which  his  relation  as  a  crea- 
ture to  his  Creator,  and  as  a  child  to  his  father  was 
about  to  be  established. 

LXIX. 

Christianity  has  sealed  and  stamped  the  title  of  our 
race,  as  the  crown  and  flower  of  the  visible  creation ; 
and  with  this  irreversible  sentence  in  their  favor,  the 
studies,  well  called  studies  of  humanity,  should  not 
resent  nor  fear,  but  should  favor  and  encourage  all 
other  noble  research  having  tor  its  object  the  globe 
on  which  we  live,  the  tribes  with  which  it  is  peopled 
in  land,  air  and  sea,  the  powers  drawn  forth  from  na- 
ture or  yet  latent  in  her  unexplored  recesses,  or  the 
spaces  of  that  vast  system 

"  Ultra  flammantia  maenia  mundi," 
to  which  our  earth  belongs. 

LXX. 

A  system  of  religion,  however  absolutely  perfect  for 
its  purpose,  however  divine  in  its  conception  and  ex- 
pression, yet  of  necessity  becomes  human  too,  from 


no  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

the  first  moment  of  its  contact  with  humanity ;  from 
the  very  time,  that  is  to  say,  when  it  begins  to  do  its 
proper  work  by  laying  hold  upon  the  hearts  and  minds 
of  men,  mingling,  as  the  leaven  in  the  dough,  with  all 
that  they  contain,  and  unfolding  and  applying  itself 
in  the  life  and  conduct  of  the  individual,  and  in  the 
laws,  institutions,  and  usages  of  society.  In  the  build- 
ing up  of  the  human  temple,  the  several  portions  of 
the  work,  while  sustaining  and  strengthening  each 
other  also,  like  the  stones  of  a  wall,  hold  them  to 
their  proper  place  and  office  in  the  fabric. 

LXXI. 

All  the  powers  and  capacities  of  man,  being  the 
work  of  God,  must  have  their  proper  place  in  his  de- 
signs ;  and  the  evil  in  the  world  arises  not  from  their 
use,  but  from  their  misuse,  not  from  their  active  work- 
iug,  each  according  to  its  place  in  the  providential 
order,  but  from  their  having  gone  astray,  as  the  planets 
would  go  astray  if  the  centripetal  force,  that  controls 
their  action,  were  withdrawn. 

LXXII. 

No  doubt  conscience  is  supreme  in  all  matters  of 
moral  conduct,  including  the  search  for  truth ;  so  that 
even  the  statement  is  a  truism.  But  this  does  not 


CONSCIENCE.  in 

exclude  argument  and  the  legitimate  use  of  the  un- 
derstanding upon  questions  of  conduct ;  and  it  is  no 
sufficient  answer  to  reasoning  drawn  from  Scripture, 
reason,  or  authority,  on  a  question  of  conduct,  to  say 
"  my  conscience  teaches  me  so,  and  there  is  an  end 
of  it."  We  must  submit  to  have  matters  of  conscience 
handled  by  reasoning  or  by  authority,  and  though  we 
are  to  protest  against  sentences  of  the  understanding 
on  matters  beyond  its  province,  as,  for  example,  upon 
absolute  dogma,  yet  even  there  we  must  not  decline 
to  allow  the  examination  of  secondary  proofs.  Con- 
science may  be  the  ultimate  judge  of  argument,  but 
this  affords  no  plea  for  declining  to  hear  it ;  and  to 
admit  such  a  plea  is  not  to  honor  conscience,  but 
to  allow  fancy,  humor,  obstinate  licentious  will,  and 
Satanic  temptations,  to  enthrone  themselves  in  its 
place. 

LXXIII. 

To  say  the  individual  conscience  is  the  criterion  of 
truth,  is  not  only  to  set  up  the  principle  of  private 
judgment,  but  to  surmount  it  with  new  and  impreg- 
nable outworks,  because  this  theory  not  only  permits 
and  authorizes,  but  certainly  encourages,  and  perhaps 
compels,  each  person  to  disclaim  all  reference  to  the 
judgment  of  others,  to  refuse  the  helps  which  an  erring 
creature  derives  from  the  scrutiny  of  others  for  the 


M2  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

correction  of  his  errors,  to  shroud  from  examination 
his  inward  persuasions,  and  to  find  in  the  fact  of  their 
existence  the  charter  of  their  legitimacy. 

It  is  obvious,  indeed,  to  say  that  the  theory  supposes 
each  man  to  be  humble,  earnest,  self-denying,  and  full 
of  prayer ;  and  that  according  to  it  holiness,  not  the 
pretence  of  holiness,  is  the  only  ground  of  belief  that 
can  acquit  a  man  of  his  responsibility  before  God  for 
believing  right.  But  stii!  we  are  met  by  the  most 
serious  difficulties.  Men  who  are  not  holy,  will  believe 
themselves  in  many  cases  to  be  holy;  and  men  who 
are  holy,  will  in  many  cases  believe  themselves  to  be 
not  holy.  The  first  proves  that  the  theory  will  not 
work  in  certain  instances ;  the  second  seems  to  go 
further,  and  to  indicate  a  radical  fault  in  it,  for  it 
appears  to  teach  that  our  belief  in  the  mystery  of  the 
Incarnation,  for  example,  is  to  depend  upon  our  having 
already  realized  that  truth  by  the  corresponding  pro- 
cess to  it  appointed  for  us,  and  having  become,  in  the 
language  of  St.  Peter,  partakers  of  the  divine  nature. 
But  when  it  is  considered  how  long,  and  arduous,  and 
doubtful,  is  very  frequently  the  struggle  between  sin 
and  grace  in  the  mind  of  the  Christian — what  stages 
of  conflict,  nay,  frequently,  what  reverses,  are  to  be 
passed  through,  before  the  soul  is  finally  established 
in  the  consistent  practice  even  of  an  elementary  right 
eousness  —  is  it  not  perilous  to  hold  out  to  mankind, 
as  the  true  theory  of  religious  faith,  that  they  are 


CONSCIENCE.  113 

only  entitled  to  believe  in  proportion  as  they  have 
realized  what  they  have  carried  into  something  of  the 
nature  of  consistent  and  permanent  practice  ? 

LXXIV. 

Mr.  Wordsworth  has  told  us  — 

''  But,  above  all,  the  victory  is  most  sure, 
For  him  who  seeking  faith  by  virtue,  strives 
To  yield  entire  submission  to  the  law 
Of  conscience." 

We,  however,  discover  here  no  supplanting  of  the 
function  of  faith  by  that  of  practice  —  no  recognition 
of  the  supremacy  of  the  private  conscience  ;  but  on 
the  contrary,  an  assumption  of  the  homage  of  obedi- 
ence as  such  to  belief  as  such,  and  the  very  highest 
exercise  of  faith  conveyed  by  obedience  as  a  medium. 
And  for  this  reason ;  that  the  seeking  dogmatic  faith 
through  virtue  is  a  process  founded  upon  moral  faith, 
upon  the  firmest  belief  —  first,  in  the  divine  constitu- 
tion of  human  nature,  which  God  has  ordained  to  be 
built  up  by  habits,  and  not  by  impulses  ;  secondly  and 
chiefly,  in  the  character  of  God  himself,  as  of  a  God 
who  will  lead  in  safety  and  aright  those  that  when 
their  eyes  are  too  weak  to  discern  spiritual  objects 
nevertheless  trust  themselves  in  blindness  to  the 
guidance  of  his  hand.  They  know  that  in  so  doing 
they  are  expressly  refusing  to  bring  down  his  lofty 


H4  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

truth  to  the  standard  of  their  inward  meanness,  and 
are  resting  rather  on  that  conviction  of  his  goodness 
which  is  a  result  reached  by  the  combined  and  har- 
monious operation  of  our  rational,  moral  and  spiritual 
faculties. 

LXXV. 

The  mass  even  of  conscientious  Christians,  it  will 
be  admitted,  have  but  little  of  the  gift  of  spiritual 
wisdom,  which  appertains  rather  to  them  that  are 
perfect  (I.  Cor.  ii.  6) ;  to  a  very  advanced  stage  of 
sanctity.  It  may  readily  be  understood  that  where  this 
wisdom,  in  the  sense  of  St.  Paul,  exists,  there  the  con- 
science is  not  only  the  main  support  of  belief  in  the 
individual  mind,  but  likewise  an  authority  in  its  degree 
even  to  others.  But  of  the  generality,  even  of  religious 
men,  little  more  can  be  said  than  that  their  will  is  set 
upon  the  whole  towards  the  observance  of  the  laws  of 
God  :  and  there  are  ten  thousand  degrees  of  acuteness 
and  comprehensiveness  in  their  vision  —  of  intensity 
and  fervor  in  their  desire.  Are  each  of  these  men  to 
apply  spiritual  truths  to  their  own  internal  state  and 
to  make  that  state  their  touchstone  ? 

LXXVI. 

He  that  wills  to  do  "  His  will  shall  know  of  the  doc- 


POETRY.  115 

trine  whether  it  be  of  God."  But  the  promises,  which 
belong  to  each  instrument  when  all  are  duly  used,  can- 
not be  claimed  in  favor  of  one  among  them  when  it 
is  made  exclusive.  The  true  doctrine  is,  we  conceive, 
"  Act  upon  Christian  principle,  and  you  will  come  to 
believe  it :  act  upon  what  is  true  in  itseif,  and  it  will 
come  to  be  also  apparent  or  true  to  you." 

LXXVII. 

The  Greek  religion  was  eminently  poetical ;  for  it 
fulfilled  in  the  most  striking  manner  that  condition 
which  poetry  above  all  requires,  harmony  in  the  rela- 
tion between  the  worlds  of  soul  and  sense.  Every 
river,  fountain,  grove  and  hill,  was  associated  with  the 
heart  and  imagination  of  the  Greek  ;  subject,  however, 
always  to  the  condition  that  they  should  appear  as 
ruled  by  a  presiding  spirit,  and  that  that  spirit  should 
be  impersonated  in  the  human  shape.  A  poetical 
religion  must,  it  seems,  be  favorable  to  art.  The 
beauty  of  form,  which  so  much  abounded  in  the  coun- 
try, was  also  favorable  to  art.  The  Athenians,  how- 
ever, are  stated  not  to  have  been  beautiful ;  and  at 
Sparta,  where  art  was  neglected,  beauty  was  immensely 
prized.  And,  indeed,  the  personal  beauty  of  a  race 
is  by  no  means  usually  found  sufficient  to  produce  the 
development  of  the  fine  arts.  Again,  as  to  the  poetry 
of  religion,  and  its  bearing  upon  art,  while  a  general 


n6  THE  MIGHT  OF   RIGHT. 

connection    may  be   admitted,   it  is  very  difficult   to 
define  the  manner  and  degree. 


LXXVIII. 

Poetry,  the.  mirror  of  the  world,  cannot  deal  with  its 
attractions  only,  but  must  present  some  of  its  repul- 
sions also,  and  avail  herself  of  the  powerful  assistance 
of  its  contrasts.  The  example  of  Homer,  who  allows 
Thersires  to  thrust  himself  upon  the  scene,  in  the 
debate  of  heroes,  gives  a  sanction  to  what  reason  and 
all  experience  teach,  namely,  the  actual  force  of  nega- 
tives in  heightening  effect ;  and  the  gentle  and  noble 
characters,  and  beautiful  combinations,  which  largely 
predominate  in  Tennyson's  "  Ideals  of  the  King," 
stand  in  far  clearer  and  bolder  relief  when  we  perceive 
the  dark  and  baleful  shadow  of  Vivien  lowering  from 
them. 

LXXIX. 

The  true  poet  has  a  delicate  insight  into  beauty,  a 
refined  perception  of  harmony,  a  faculty  of  suggestion, 
an  eye  both  in  the  physical  and  moral  world  for  mo- 
tion, light,  and  color,  a  sympathetic  and  close  observa- 
tion of  nature,  a  dominance  of  the  constructive  faculty, 
and  that  rare  gift  —  the  thorough  mastery  and  loving 
use  of  his  native  tougne.  Many  of  us,  the  common 


POETRY.  117 

crowd,  made  of  the  common  clay,  may  be  lovers  of 
nature.  But  it  does  not  follow  that  we  possess  the 
privilege  that  the  poet  enjoys.  For  him  nature  has  a 
voice  of  the  most  finished  articulation ;  all  her  images 
to  him  are  clear  and  definite,  and  he  translates  them 
for  us  into  that  language  of  suggestion,  emphasis,  and 
refined  analogy,  which  links  the  manifold  to  the  simple, 
and  the  Infinite  to  the  finite. 

LXXX. 

The  sense  of  beauty  enters  into  the  highest  philos- 
ophy, as  in  Plato.  The  highest  poet  must  be  a  phi- 
losopher, accomplished,  like  Dante',  or  intuitive,  like 
Shakspeare.  But  neither  the  one  nor  the  other  can 
now  exist  in  separation  from  that  conception  of  the 
relations  between  God  and  man,  that  new  standard  and 
pattern  of  humanity,  which  Christianity  has  supplied. 
It  is  true,  indeed,  that  much  of  what  it  has  indelibly 
impressed  upon  the  imagination  and  understanding, 
the  heart  and  life  of  man,  may  be  traceable  and  even 
prominent  in  those  who  individually  disown  it.  The 
splendor  of  these  disappropriated  gifts  in  particular 
cases  may  be  among  the  very  greatest  of  the  signs 
and  wonders  appointed  for  the  trial  of  faith.  Yet  there 
is  always  something  in  them  to  show  that  they  have 
with  them  no  source  of  positive  and  permanent  vitality ; 


ii8  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

that  the  branch  has  been  torn  from  the  tree,  and  that 
its  life  is  on  the  wane. 

LXXXI. 

It  is  by  the  perceptive,  or  rather  by  the  strictly  crea- 
tive powers  that  the  poet  projects  his  work  from  him- 
self, stands  as  it  were  completely  detached  from  it, 
and  becomes  in  his  own  personality  invisible.  Thus 
did  Homer  and  Shakspeare  perhaps  beyond  all  other 
men  :  thus  did  Goethe,  subjective  as  he  truly  is :  thus 
did  Dante*  when  he  pleased,  although  his  individuality 
is  the  local  and  material,  not  the  formal,  centre,  to  so 
speak,  of  his  whole  poem.  Air  this  is  only  to  say  in 
other  words  that  by  this  gift  the  poet  throws  his  entire 
strength  into  his  work,  and  identifies  himself  with  it; 
that  he  not  only  does,  but  'for  the  time  being  is,  his 
work  ;  and  that  then,  when  the  work  is  done,  he  passes 
away  and  leaves  it.  It  is  perfect  in  its  own  kind,  and 
bears  no  stamp  or  trace  of  him  —  that  is  of  what  in 
him  pertains  to  the  individual  as  such,  and  does  not 
come  under  the  general  laws  of  truth  and  beauty. 
Thus  all  high  pictorial  poetry  is  composed  :  thus  every 
great  character,  in  the  drama  or  romance,  is  conceived 
and  executed. 

It  is  the  gift  of  imagination  in  its  highest  form  and 
intensity  which  effects  these  wonderful  transmutations, 


POETRY.  119 

and  places  the  poet  of  the  first  order  in  a  rank,  nearer 
to  that  of  creative  energies  than  anything  else  we 
know. 

LXXXII. 

We  do  not  believe  that  a  Milton  —  or,  in  other 
words,  the  writer  of  a  "  Paradise  Lost "  —  could  ever 
be  so  great  as  a  Shakspeare  or  a  Homer,  because  (set- 
ting aside  all  other  questions)  his  chief  characters  are 
neither  human,  nor  can  they  be  legitimately  founded 
upon  humanity ;  and,  moreover,  what  he  has  to  repre- 
sent of  man  is,  by  the  very  law  of  its  being,  limited  in 
scale  and  development.  Here  at  least  the  saying  is 
a  true  one  in  its  full  scope  ;  "  Antiquitas  sceculi,  juventus 
mundi;"  rendered  by  our  laureate  in  "The  Day- 
dream," 

"  For  we  are  ancients  of  the  earth, 
And  in  the  morning  of  the  times." 

The  Adam  and  Eve  of  Paradise  exhibit  to  us  the 
first  inception  of  our  race  ;  and  neither  then,  nor  after 
their  first  sad  lesson,  could  they  furnish  those  materials 
for  representations,  which  their  descendants  have  accu- 
mulated in  the  school  of  their  incessant  and  many- 
colored,  but  on  the  whole  too  gloomy  experience.  To 
the  long  chapters  of  that  experience,  every  generation 
of  man  makes  its  own  addition. 


120  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

LXXXIII. 

The  substitution  of  law  for  force  has  indeed  altered 
the  relations  of  the  strong  and  the  weak  ;  the  harden- 
ing or  cooling  down  of  political  institutions  and  social 
traditions,  the  fixed  and  legal  track  instead  of  the  open 
pathless  field,  have  removed  or  neutralized  many  of 
those  occasions  and  passages  of  life,  which  were  for- 
merly the  schools  of  individual  character.  The  genius 
of  mechanism  has  vied  in  the  arts  both  of  peace  and 
war,  with  the  strong  hand,  and  has  well-nigh  robbed 
it  of  its  place.  But  let  us  not  be  deceived  by  that 
smoothness  of  superficies,  which  the  social  prospect 
offers  to  the  distant  eye.  Nearness  dispels  the  illu- 
sion ;  life  is  still  as  full  of  deep,  of  varied,  of  ecstatic, 
of  harrowing  interests  as  it  ever  was.  The  heart  of 
man  still  beats  and  bounds,  exults  and  suffers  from 
causes  which  are  only  less  salient  and  conspicuous, 
because  they  are  more  mixed  and  diversified.  It  still 
undergoes  every  phase  of  emotion,  and  even,  as  seems 
probable,  with  a  susceptibility  which  has  increased  and 
is  increasing,  and  which  has  its  index  and  outer  form 
in  the  growing  delicacy  and  complexities  of  the  nervous 
system.  Does  any  one  believe  that  ever  at  any  time 
there  was  a  greater  number  of  deaths  referable  to 
that  comprehensive  cause,  a  broken  heart  ?  Let  none 
fear  that  this  age,  or  any  coming  one,  will  extirpate 
the  material  of  poetry.  The  more  reasonable  appre- 


POETRY.  121 

hension  might  be,  lest  it  should  sap  the  vital  force 
necessary  to  handle  that  material,  and  mould  it  into 
appropriate  forms. 

LXIV. 

Storms,  deaths,  other  calamities  are  distasteful ;  but 
the  poets  are  full  of  them.  In  the  tears,  agitation, 
shuddering,  caused  by  the  perusal  of  poetry,  there  is 
real  and  keen  delight,  which  springs  from  the  vivid 
imitation  and  representation  of  nature,  as  it  brings 
before  us,  and  fills  with  life,  what  is  distant  or  dead,  or 
purely  imaginary.  The  law  of  the  beautiful  admits  in 
poetry,  for  the  mind,  many  things  that  it  excludes  from 
painting,  for  the  eye. 

LXXXV. 

Some  ores  yield  too  low  a  percentage  of  metal  to  be 
worth  the  smelting,  whereas  had  the  mass  been  purer, 
it  had  been  extracted  and  preserved.  Posterity  will 
have  to  smelt  largely  the  product  of  the  mines  of 
modern  literature ;  and  will  too  often  find  the  reward 
in  less  than  due  proportion  to  the  task.  So  much  for 
quantity.  But  quality  itself  is  not  homogeneous ;  it 
is  made  up  of  positives  and  negatives.  Merits  and 
demerits  are  subtly  and  variously  combined ;  and  it 


122  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

is  hard  to  say  what  will  be  the  effect  in  certain  cases 
of  the  absence  of  faults  as  compared  with  the  presence 
of  excellences,  towards  averting  or  commuting  that 
sentence  of  capital  punishment  which,  estimate  as  we 
may  the  humanity  of  the  time,  must  and  will  be  carried 
into  wholesale  execution.  Again,  men  look  for  differ- 
ent excellences  in  works  of  different  classes.  We  do 
not  hold  an  "^EneidJ"  or  a  "Paradise  Lost"  bound 
to  the  veracity  of  an  annalist.  We  do  not  look  to 
Burke  or  Sheridan  for  an  accurate  and  balanced  rep- 
resentation of  the  acts  of  Warren  Hastings.  The  sub- 
tle gifts  of  rhetoric,  the  magic  work  of  poetry,  are 
loved  for  their  own  sake  ;  and  they  are  not  severely 
cross-examined  upon  the  possession  of  historic  attri- 
butes to  which  they  do  not  pretend. 

LXXXVI. 

Personal  existence  is  beset  with  dangers  in  infancy 
and  again  in  age.  But  authorship,  if  it  survive  the 
first,  has  little  to  fear  from  the  after-peril.  If  it  subsist 
for  a  few  generations  (and  generations  are  for  books 
what  years  are  for  their  writers),  it  is  not  likely  to  sink 
in  many.  For  works  of  the  mind  really  great  there  is 
no  old  age,  no  decrepitude.  It  is  inconceivable  that 
a  time  should  come  when  Homer,  Dante',  Shakspeare, 
shall  not  ring  in  the  ears  of  civilized  man. 


AUTHORSHIP.  123 

LXXXVII. 

Among  the  topics  of  literary  speculation,  there  is 
none  more  legitimate  or  more  interesting  than  to  con- 
sider who,  among  the  writers  of  a  given  age,  are  elected 
to  live ;  to  be  enrolled  among  the  band  of  the  immor- 
tals ;  to  make  a  permanent  addition  to  the  mental 
patrimony  of  the  human  race.  There  is  also  none 
more  difficult.  Not  that  there  is  any  difficulty  at  all  iu 
what  is  technically  called  purging  the  roll :  in  supply- 
ing any  number  of  names  which  are  to  sink  (if  they 
have  not  yet  sunk)  like  lead  in  the  mighty  waters,  or 
which,  by  a  slower  descent,  perhaps  like  the  zigzag 
from  an  Alpine  summit,  are  to  find  their  way  into  the 
repose  of  an  undisturbed  oblivion.  Sad  as  it  may 
seem,  the  heroes  of  the  pen  are  in  the  main  but  as 
"  fools  "  lighted  by  the  passing  day  on  the  road  to  dusty 
death.  But  it  is  when  the  list  has  been  reduced,  say  to 
a  hundreth  part  of  the  writers,  and  to  a  tenth  ot  the 
few  prominent  and  well-known  writers  of  the  day,  that 
the  pinch,  so  to  call  it,  of  the  task  begins.  We  now 
stumble  onwards  with  undefined  and  partial  aids.  Bulk 
will  surely  kill  its  thousands  :  that,  which  stood  the 
ancient  warrior  in  such  good  stead,  will  be  fatal  to 
many  a  modern  author,  who,  but  for  it,  might  have 
lived.  And  money  will  as  surely  have  killed  its  tens 
of  thousands  beforehand,  by  touching  them  as  with 
palsy.  It  was  one  of  the  glories  of  Macaulay  that  he 


124  .  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

never  wrote  for  money ;  it  was  the  chief  calamity  of  a 
yet  greater,  and  much  greater,  man,  to  wit  of  Scott, 
that  iron  necessities  in  later  life,  happily  not  until  his 
place  had  long  been  secure,  set  that  yoke  upon  his  lofty 
crest.  And  few  are  they  who,  either  in  trade  or  letters, 
take  it  for  their  aim  to  supply  the  market,  not  with  the 
worst  they  can  sell,  but  with  the  best  they  can  produce. 
In  the  train  of  this  desire,  or  need,  for  money,  comes 
haste  with  its  long  train  of  evils,  summed  up  in  the 
general  scampering  of  work ;  crude  conception,  slip 
shod  execution,  the  mean  stint  of  labor,  suppression  of 
the  inconvenient,  blazoning  of  the  insignificant,  neglect 
of  causes,  loss  of  proportion  in  the  presentation  of 
results.  We  write  of  the  moment;  may  it  not  be  of 
the  age. 

Survival,  we  venture  to  suggest,  will  probably  depend 
not  so  much  on  a  single  quality,  as  upon  a  general  or 
composite  result.  The  chance  of  it  will  vary  directly 
as  quality,  and  inversely  as  quantity. 

LXXXVIII. 

A  peculiar  faculty,  and  one  approaching  to  the  dra- 
matic order,  belongs  to  the  successful  painter  of  histor- 
ical portraits,  and  belongs  also  to  the  true  biographer. 
It  is  that  of  representing  personality.  In  the  picture, 
what  we  want  is  not  merely  a  collection  of  unexcep- 
tionable lines  and  colors  so  presented  as  readily  to 


AUTHORSHIP.  125 

identify  their  original.  Such  a  work  is  not  the  man, 
but  is  only  a  duly  attested  certificate  of  the  man. 
What  we  require,  however,  is  the  man  and  not  merely 
the  certificate.  In  the  same  way,  what  we  want  in  a 
biography,  and  what,  despite  the  etymology  of  the  title, 
we  very  seldom  find,  is  life.  The  very  best  transcript 
is  a  failure,  if  it  be  a  transcript  only.  To  fulfil  its 
idea,  it  must  have  in  it  the  essential  quality  of 
movement ;  must  realize  the  lofty  fiction  of  the  divine 
shield  of  Achilles,  where  the  upturning  earth,  though 
wrought  in  metal,  darkened  as  the  plough  went  on  ; 
and  thfe  figures  of  the  battle-piece  dealt  their  strokes 
and  parried  them,  and  dragged  out  from  the  turmoil 
the  bodies  of  their  dead. 

LXXXIX. 

Biographies,  like  painted  portraits,  range  over  an 
immense  scale  of  value :  the  brightest  stand  at  a  very 
elevated  point  indeed  ;  and  the  lowest,  in  which  this  age 
has  been  beyond  all  others  fertile,  descend  far  below 
zero.  Human  nature  is  in  itself  a  thing  so  wonderful, 
so  greatly  paramount  among  all  the  objects  offered  to 
our  knowledge,  that  there  are  few  pieces  or  speci- 
mens of  it  which  do  not  deserve  and  reward  obser- 
vation. But  then  they  must  be  true,  and  must 
breathe  the  breath  of  life ;  they  must  give  us,  not 
the  mere  clothes,  or  grave-clothes,  of  die  man,  but  the 


126  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

man  himself.  For  this  reason  it  is  that  autobiogra- 
phies (unless  when  a  distinguished  man  is  unfortu- 
nately tempted,  as  appears  to  have  been  the  case 
with  Lord  Brougham,  to  write  his  own  life  from  old 
newspapers)  are  commonly  of  real  interest ;  for  every 
man  does  his  best  to  make  his  own  portrait  a 
likeness. 

And  for  this  reason  also  it  may  be  that,  in  so  many 
cases,  the  personal  memoirs  of  men  of  religious  celeb- 
rity are  fiat,  stale,  and  unprofitable  to  a  degree,  because 
they  are,  beyond  all  others,  unreal  and  got  up.  Some- 
times, with  a  good  deal  of  excuse,  feelings  of  natural 
piety,  and  sometimes,  with  no  excuse  at  all,  the  sup- 
posed interest  of  sect  or  clique,  withhold  altogether 
from  view  the  faults,  errors,  or  inequalities,  through 
some  or  all  of  which  it  was  that  the  man  was  indeed  a 
man,  a  being  of  mixed  character,  to  be  remembered 
usefully  for  warning,  and  for  caution,  as  well  as  for 
imitation,  or  for  pious  unreasoning  wonder. 


XC. 


A  tentative  work  can  ill  afford  to  be  judged  by  the 
rules  applicable  to  one  which  is  didactic.  The  didactic 
writer  is  in  possession,  when  he  begins,  of  all  the 
knowledge  with  which  he  ends  ;  the  tentative  writer 
gathers  as  he  goes.  The  first  is  bound  by  the  same 
rules  all  along  •  the  other  enlarges  the  scope  of  his 


AUTHORSHIP.  127 

vision  at  each  step  he  makes,  and  may  naturally  and 
justifiably  have  employed  language  and  assumed  a  tone, 
when  he  commenced  his  labors,  which  would  be  unbe- 
coming from  the  more  advanced  position  that  he  occu- 
pies at  the  close.  Nor  ought  he  of  necessity  to  go 
back  upon  and  recast  his  diction,  so  as  to  give  himself 
one  color  and  one  attitude  from  first  to  last.  For  if  he 
did  so,  he  would  be  likely  to  efface  from  his  composi- 
tion those  lineaments  of  truth  and  nature  on  which  its 
effect  as  a  whole  might  in  great  measure  depend.  For 
in  such  a  work,  which  is  essentially  a  work  of  self  edu- 
cation, that  which,  above  all  things,  the  reader  ought  to 
see  is  the  progression  of  effect,  which  the  study  of  the 
subject,  exhibited  in  the  actual  tissue  of  the  book,  has 
had  upon  the  mind  of  the  writer.  He  should  be  placed 
in  a  position  to  measure  with  some  accuracy  the  dis- 
tance between  his  author's  point  of  departure  and 
point  of  arrival ;  and,  in  order  that  he  may  do  this,  he 
must  know  the  actual  whereabout  of  the  one  as  well  as 
of  the  other. 

XCI. 

The  early  Christian  writers,  not  being  the  narrow- 
minded  men  that  many  take  them  for,  did  not  deny  or 
disparage  the  intellectual  prodigies  of  the  great  hea- 
then races,  of  those  marvellous  philosophers  as  Euse- 
bius  often  calls  them,  of  that  Plato  so  eminently 


128  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

commended  by  his  intellectual  debtor  the  great  Saint 
Augustine  :  nor  did  they  make  light  of  the  voice  of 
nature  in  the  soul  of  man ;  nor  of  the  divine  govern- 
ment over  the  whole  world  at  every  period  of  its  exist- 
ence ;  nor  of  the  truths  to  be  found  in  ancient  writers. 
But  the  defiled  and  putrescent  system  of  religion  which 
they  found  confronting  them,  formdable  as  it  was  from 
antiquity,  wide  extension,  general  consent,  from  the 
strength  of  habit,  and  from  the  tenacious  grasp  of 
powerful  interests  upon  temporal  possessions  and 
advantages,  this  evil  system  they  hunted  down  in 
argument  without  mercy,  and  did  not  admit  to  be  an 
historical  and  traditional  derivation  from  a  primeval 
truth,  which  the  common  ancestry  of  the  Semitic  and 
the  European  races  had  once  in  common  enjoyed. 

It  can  hardly  be  said  that  there  was  intentional 
unfairness  in  this  proceeding.  The  Christian  writers 
labored  under  the  same  defect  of  critical  knowledge 
and  practice  with  their  adversaries.  They  took  the 
lives,  deeds,  and  genealogies  of  the  heathen  deities, 
just  as  they  found  them  in  the  popular  creed,  for  the 
starting-point  of  their  argument.  Their  immediate 
business  was  to  confute  a  false  religion,  and  to  sweep 
from  the  face  of  the  world  a  crying  and  incurable  moral 
evil :  not  to  construct  an  universal  philosophy  of  the 
religious  history  of  man ;  for  which  the  time  had  not 
then,  and  perhaps  has  not  yet,  arrived.  But  we  have 
new  sources  of  knowledge,  new  means  of  detecting 


AUTHORSHIP.  129 

error  and  guiding  inquiry,  new  points  of  view  set  open 
to  us  :  and  the  more  freely  and  faithfully  we  use  them 
the  more  we  shall  find  cause  to  own,  with  reverence 
and  thankfulness,  the  depth,  and  heights,  and  breadth 
of  the  wisdom  and  goodness  of  God. 

XCII. 

"Prove  all  things:  hold  fast  that  which  is  good," 
is  a  precept  which  England  has  fearlessly  accepted, 
and  from  the  universal  application  of  which  she  has 
not  shrunk ;  alive  to  the  serious  dangers  of  her  course, 
but  bent  upon  reaping  its  transcendent  and  inestimable 
advantages.  It  is,  we  believe,  to  this  cause  that  we 
may  refer  the  unquestionable  fact  that  classical  studies 
in  England  are  not  found  to  have  any  sceptical  ten- 
dency, and  that  the  University  of  Oxford  finds  in 
Aristotle  one  of  her  most  powerful  engines  of  ethical, 
and  indirectly  of  Christian,  teaching.  But  then  there 
must  be  real  and  vital  activity  of  the  mind  upon  the 
subject  matter  of  religion,  as  there  is  upon  the  subject 
matter  of  pagan  learning.  Greece  and  Rome  present 
to  us  great  and  masculine  developments  of  our  com- 
mon nature,  and  wonderful  triumphs  achieved  by  them 
in  every  department  both  of  mental  and  of  practical 
effort.  The  mind  cannot  embrace  them,  cannot  reap 
its  reward  in  the  appreciation  of  them,  without  the 
exertion  of  its  powers  at  their  topmost  bent. 


130  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

XCIII. 

Mediocrity  is  now,  as  formerly,  dangerous,  com- 
monly fatal,  to  the  poet :  but  among  even  the  success- 
ful writers  of  prose,  those  who  rise  sensibly  above  it 
are  the  very  rarest  exceptions.  The  tests  of  excel- 
lence in  prose  are  as  much  less  palpable,  as  the  public 
appetite  is  less  fastidious.  Moreover,  we  are  moving 
downwards  in  this  respect.  The  proportion  of  mid- 
dling to  good  writing  constantly  and  rapidly  increases. 
With  the  average  of  performance,  the  standard  of 
judgment  progressively  declines. 

XCIV. 

To  the  literary  success  of  Macaulay,  it  would  be 
difficult  to  find  a  parallel  in  the  history  of  recent 
authorship.  For  this,  and  probably  for  all  future  cen- 
turies, we  are  to  regard  the  public  as  the  patron  of 
literary  men ;  and  as  a  patron  abler  than  any  that 
went  before  to  heap  both  fame  and  fortune  on  its 
favorites.  Setting  aside  works  of  which  the  primary 
purpose  was  entertainment,  Tennyson  alone  among  the 
writers  of  our  age,  in  point  of  public  favor,  and  of 
emolument  following  upon  it,  comes  near  to  Macaulay, 
But  Tennyson  was  laboriously  cultivating  his  gifts  for 
many  years,  before  he  acquired  a  position  in  the  eye 
of  the  nation.  Macaulay,  fresh  from  college,  in  1825, 


AUTHORSHIP,  131 

astonished  the  world  by  his  brilliant  and  most  impos- 
ing essay  on  Milton.  Full-orbed  he  was  seen  above 
the  horizon  ;  and  full-orbed,  after  thirty-five  years  of 
constantly-emitted  splendor,  he  sank  beneath  it. 

His  gains  from  literature  were  extraordinary.  The 
cheque  for  twenty  thousand  pounds  is  known  to  all. 
But  his  accumulation  was  reduced  by  his  bounty ;  and 
his  profits  would,  it  is  evident,  have  been  far  larger 
still,  had  he  dealt  with  the  products  of  his  mind  on 
the  principles  of  economic  science  (which,  however, 
he  heartily  professed),  and  sold  his  wares  in  the  dear- 
est market,  as  he  undoubtedly  acquired  them  in  the 
cheapest.  No  one  can  measure  the  elevation  of  Ma- 
caulay's  character  above  the  mercenary  level,  without 
bearing  in  mind,  that  for  ten  years  after  1825  he  was 
a  poor  and  a  contented  man,  though  ministering  to 
the  wants  of  a  father  and  a  family  reduced  in  circum- 
stances ;  though  in  the  blaze  of  literary  and  political 
success;  and  though  he  must  have  been  conscious 
from  the  first  of  the  possession  of  a  gift  which,  by  a 
less  congenial  and  more  compulsory  use,  would  have 
rapidly  led  him  to  opulence.  Yet  of  the  comforts  and 
advantages,  both  social  and  physical,  from  which  he 
thus  forbore,  it  is  so  plain  that  he  at  all  times  formed 
no  misanthropic  or  ascetic,  but  on  the  contrary  a  very 
liberal  and  genial  estimate.  It  is  truly  touching  to  find 
that  never,  except  as  a  minister,  until  1851,  when  he 
had  already  lived  fifty  years  of  his  fifty-nine,  did  this 


132  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

favorite  of  fortune,  this  idol  of  society,  allow  himself 
the  luxury  of  a  carriage. 

XCV. 

However  true  it  may  be  that  Macaulay  was  a  far 
more  consummate  workman  in  the  manner  than  in 
the  matter  of  his  works,  we  do  not  doubt  that  the 
works  contain,  in  multitudes,  passages  of  high  emotion 
and  ennobling  sentiments,  just  awards  of  praise  and 
blame,  and  solid  expositions  of  principle,  social,  moral, 
and  constitutional.  They  are  pervaded  by  a  generous 
love  of  liberty  ;  and  their  atmosphere  is  pure  and 
bracing,  their  general  aim  and  basis  morally  sound. 
Of  the  style  of  the  works  we  can  speak  with  little 
qualification.  We  da  not,  indeed,  venture  to  assert 
that  his  style  ought  to  be  imitated.  Yet  this  is  not 
because  it  was  vicious,  but  because  it  was  individual 
and  incommunicable.  It  was  one  of  those  gifts,  of 
which,  when  it  had  been  conferred,  nature  broke  the 
mould.  That  it  is  the  head  of  all  literary  styles,  we 
do  not  allege  j  but  it  is  different  from  them  all,  and 
perhaps  more  different  from  them  all  than  they  are 
usually  different  from  one  another.  We  speak  only  of 
natural  styles,  of  styles  where  the  manner  waits  upon 
the  matter,  and  not  where  an  artificial  structure  has 
been  reared  either  to  hide  or  to  make  up  for  poverty 
of  substance. 


AUTHORSHIP. 


'33 


It  is  paramount  in  the  union  of  ease  in  movement 
with  perspicuty  of  matter,  of  both  ^yith  real  splendor, 
and  of  all  with  immense  rapidity  and  striking  force. 
From  any  other  pen  such  masses  of  ornament  would 
be  tawdry  ;  with  him  they  are  only  rich.  As  a  model 
of  art,  concealing  art,  the  finest  cabinet  pictures  of 
Holland  are  almost  his  only  rivals.  Like  Pascal,  he 
makes  the  heaviest  subject  light ;  like  Burke,  he  em- 
bellishes the  barrenest.  When  he  walks  over  arid 
plains,  the  springs  of  milk  and  honey,  as  in  a  march 
of  Bacchus,  seem  to  rise  beneath  his  tread.  The  repast 
he  serves  is  always  sumptuous,  but  it  seems  to  create 
an  appetite  proportioned  to  its  abundance ;  for  who 
has  ever  heard  of  the  reader  that  was  cloyed  with 
Macaulay  ?  In  none,  perhaps,  of  our  prose  writers 
are  lessons,  such  as  he  gives,  of  truth  and  beauty, 
of  virtue  and  of  freedom,  so  vividly  associated  with 
delight.  Could  some  magician  but  do  for  the  career 
of  life  what  he  has  done  for  the  arm-chair  and  the 
study,  what  a  change  would  pass  on  the  face  (at  least) 
of  the  world  we  live  in  :  what  an  accession  of  recruits 
would  there  be  to  the  professing  followers  of  virtue. 

As  the  serious  flaw  in  Macaulay's  mind  was  want 
of  depth,  so  the  central  defect,  with  which  his  pro- 
ductions appear  to  be  chargeable,  is  a  pervading  strain 
of  more  or  less  exaggeration.  He  belonged  to  that 
class  of  minds,  whose  views  of  single  objects  are 
singularly  and  almost  preternaturally  luminous.  But 


134  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

» 

nature  sows  her  bounty  wide  ;  and  those,  who  possess 
this  precious  and  fascinating  gift  as  to  things  in  them- 
selves, are  very  commonly  deficient  beyond  ordinary 
men  in  discerning  and  measuring  their  relations  to 
one  another.  For  them  all  things  are  either  absolutely 
transparent,  or  else  unapproachable  from  dense  and 
utter  darkness.  Hence,  amidst  a  blaze  of  glory,  there 
is  a  want  of  perspective,  of  balance,  and  of  breadth. 
Themselves  knowing  nothing  of  difficulty,  or  of  obscur- 
ity, or  of  mental  struggle  to  work  out  of  it,  they  are 
liable  to  be  intolerant  of  other  men  who  stumble  at 
the  impediments  they  have  overleapt ;  and  even  the 
kindest  hearts  may  be  led  not  merely  by  the  abun- 
dance, but  by  the  peculiarities,  of  their  powers,  into  the 
most  precipitate  and  partial  judgments.  From  this 
result  Macaulay  has  not  been  preserved ;  and  we  are 

convinced  that  the  charges  against  him  would  have 
i 

been  multiplied  tenfold,  had  not  the  exuberant  kind- 
ness of  his  disposition  oftentimes  done  for  him  the 
office  of  a  cautious  and  self-denying  intellect. 

Minds  of  the  class  to  which  we  refer,  are  like  the 
bodies  in  the  outer  world,  fashioned  without  gaps  or 
flaws  or  angles  ;  the  whole  outline  of  their  formation 
is  continuous,  the  whole  surface  is  smooth.  They  are, 
in  this  sense,  complete  men,  and  they  do  not  readily 
comprehend  those  who  are  incomplete.  They  do  not 
readily  understand  either  the  inferiority,  or  the  superi- 
ority, of  opponents;  the  inferiority  of  their  slower 


AUTHORSHIP.  135 

sight,  or  the  superiority  of  their  deeper  insight ;  their 
at  once  seeing  less,  and  seeing  more.  In  Macaulay's 
case  this  defect  could  not  but  be  enhanced  by  his 
living  habitually  with  men  of  congenial  mind,  and  his 
comparatively  limited  acquaintance  with  that  conten- 
tious world  of  practical  politics  which,  like  the  heaviest 
wrestling-match  for  the  body,  exhibits  the  unlimited 
diversities  in  the  attitudes  of  the  human  mind,  and 
helps  to  show  how  subtle  and  manifold  a  thing  is  the 
nature  that  we  bear. 

XCVI. 

• 

The  very  common  association  between  seeing  clearly 
and  seeing  narrowly  is  a  law  or  a  fraility  of  our  nature 
not  sufficiently  understood.  Paley  was  perhaps  the 
most  notable  instance  of  it  among  our  writers.  Among 
living  politicians,  it  would  be  easy  to  point  to  very  con- 
spicuous instances.  This  habit  of  mind  is  extremely 
attractive,  in  that  it  makes  incisive  speakers  and  pellu- 
cid writers,  who  respectively  save  their  hearers  and 
their  readers  trouble.  Its  natural  tendency,  however, 
is  towards  hopeless  intolerance  ;  it  makes  all  hesitation, 
all  misgiving,  all  suspense,  an  infirmity,  or  a  treachery 
to  truth ;  it  generates  an  appetite  for  intellectual 
butchery. 


136  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

XCVII. 

Macaulay  was,  perhaps,  not  strong  in  his  reflective 
faculties ;  certainly  he  gave  them  little  chance  of  devel- 
opment by  exercise.  He  was  eminently  objective, 
eminently  realistic  ;  resembling  in  this  the  father  of  all 
poets,  whom  none  of  his  children  have  surpassed,  and 
who  never  converts  into  an  object  of  conscious  contem- 
plation the  noble  powers  which  he  keeps  in  such  ver- 
satile and  vigorous  use. 

In  Macaulay  all  history  is  scenic ;  and  philosophy  he 
scarcely  seems  to  touch,  except  on  the  outer  side,  where 
it  opens  into  action.  Not  only  does  he  habitually  pre- 
sent facts  in  the  forms  of  beauty,  but  \he  fashioning  of 
the  form  predominates  over,  and  is  injurious  to,  the 
absolute  and  balanced  presentation  of  the  subject. 
Macaulay  was  a  master  in  execution,  rather  than  in 
what  painting  or  music  terms  expression.  He  did  not 
fetch  from  the  depths,  nor  soar  to  the  heights ;  but  his 
power  upon  the  surface  was  rare  and  marvellous,  and  it 
is  upon  the  surface  that  an  ordinary  life  is  passed,  and 
that  its  imagery  is  found.  He  mingled,  then,  like 
Homer,  the  functions  of  the  poet  and  the  chronicler ; 
but  what  Homer  did  was  due  to  his  time,  what  Macau- 
lay  did,  to  his  temperament.  Commonly  sound  in  his 
classical  appreciations,  he  was  an  enthusiastic  admirer 
of  Thucydides  ;  but  there  can  hardly  be  a  sharper  con- 
trast than  between  the  history  of  Thucydide?,  and  the 


AUTHORSHIP.  137 

history  of  Macaulay.  Ease,  brilliancy,  pellucid  clear- 
ness, commanding  fascination,  the  effective  marshalling 
of  all  facts  belonging  to  the  external  world  as  if  on 
parade  ;  all  these  gifts  Macaulay  has,  and  Thucydides 
has  not.  But  weight,  breadth,  proportion,  deep  dis- 
cernment, habitual  contemplation  of  the  springs  of 
character  and  conduct,  and  the  power  to  hold  the  scales 
of  human  action  with  firm  and  even  hand,  these  must 
be  sought  in  Thucydides,  and  are  rarely  observable  in 
Macaulay. 

But  how  few  are  the  writers  whom  it  would  be  any- 
thing else  than  ridiculous  to  place  in  comparison  with 
Thucydides  !  The  history  of  Macaulay,  whatever  else 
it  may  be,  is  the  work  not  of  a  journeyman  but  of  a 
great  artist,  and  a  great  artist  who  lavishly  bestowed 
upon  it  all  his  powers.  Such  a  work,  once  committed 
to  the  press,  can  hardly  die.  It  is  not  because  it  has 
been  translated  into  a  crowd  of  languages,  nor  because 
it  has  been  sold  in  hundreds  of  thousands,  that  we 
believe  it  will  live,  but  because,  however  open  it  may 
be  to  criticism,  it  has  in  it  the  character  of  a  true  and 
very  high  work  of  art. 

XCVIII. 

It  is  only  by  a  license  of  speech  that  the  term  knowl- 
edge can  be  applied  to  any  of  our  human  perceptions. 
For  as  nothing  can,  in  the  nature  of  things,  properly 


138  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

speaking,  be  known,  except  that  which  exists,  or  known 
in  any  manner  other  than  that  exact  manner  in  which 
it  exists,  it  follows  that  knowledge  can  properly  be 
predicated  only  by  those  who  infallibly  know  them  to 
be  true.  In  strictness,  therefore,  knowledge  is  not 
predicable  by  us  of  any  one  of  our  own  perceptions ; 
whatever  number  of  them  may  be  true,  we  do  not  infal- 
libly know  of  any  one  of  them,  that  it  is  true.  Of  all 
the  steps  in  the  operations  of  our  mental  faculties, 
there  is  not  one,  at  which  it  is  abstractedly  impossible 
that  error  should  intervene ;  and  as  this  is  not  impos- 
sible, knowledge,  the  certain  and  precise  correspond- 
ence of  the  percipient  and  the  thing  perceived,  cannot 
be  categorically  asserted.  If,  therefore,  without  knowl- 
edge in  its  scientific  sense  there  can  be  no  legitimate 
belief,  this  wide  universe  is  a  blank,  and  nothing  can 
be  believed ;  nothing  theological,  nothing  moral,  noth- 
ing social,  nothing  physical.  In  a  word,  abstract 
certainty,  in  this  dispensation,  we  scarcely  can  possess, 
though  we  may  come  indefinitely  near  it :  and  knowl- 
edge and  certainty  and  all  similar  expressions  as 
practical  terms  must  be  understood  not  absolutely  but 
relatively. 

XCIX. 

Next  to  this  abstract  certainty,  comes  that   kind  of 
assent  to  propositions  which,  according  to  the  constitu- 


DOUBT.  139 

tion  of  our  minds,  is  such  as  to  exclude  all  doubt. 
Human  language  applies  the  denomination  of  knowl- 
edge to  such  assent,  in  cases  where  this  exclusion  is 
entire  and  peremptory  in  the  highest  degree.  Between 
that  point,  and  the  point  at  which  a  proposition  be- 
comes improbable,  and  a  just  understanding  inclines 
to  its  rejection,  an  infinity  of  shades  of  likelihood  inter- 
vene. For  example  :  where  the  exclusion  of  doubt  is 
after  consideration  entire,  but  yet  not  peremptory  and 
immediate ;  where  it  depends  upon  the  comprehensive 
and  continuous  view  of  many  particulars;  where  it 
rests  upon  the  recollection  of  a  demonstration,  of 
which  the  detail  has  escaped  from  the  memory :  where 
it  proceeds  from  some  strong  original  instinct,  inca- 
pable of  analysis  in  the  last  resort :  these  are  all  cases 
in  which  doubt  might  be  entirely  banished,  but  yet  we 
should  scarcely  know  whether  to  say  our  assent  was 
founded  on  knowledge  or  upon  belief,  since  the  shades 
of  the  two,  as  they  are  commonly  understood,  pass 
into  one  another.  Generally,  however,  this  distinction 
would  be  taken  between  them  ;  that  we  should  call 
knowledge  what  does  not  to  our  perceptions  admit  of 
degree,  and  what  does  admit  of  it  we  should  call 
belief,  although  we  might  in  the  particular  case  pos- 
sess it  in  the  highest  degree,  so  that  it  should  have 
all  the  certainty  of  knowledge;  just  as  we  can  readily 
conceive  two  stations,  the  one  at  the  head  of  a  pillar, 


140  THE  MIGHT  OF   RIGHT. 

and  the  other  at  the  head  of  a  stair,  yet  the  two  of 
equal  altitude. 


C. 


The  fundamental  proposition  on  which  we  rest,  and 
for  the  proof  of  which  we  appeal,  without  fear  of  a 
disputed  reply,  to  the  universal  practice  of  mankind,  is 
this :  that  the  whole  system  of  our  moral  conduct,  and 
much  also  of  our  conduct  that  is  not  directly  moral, 
rests  upon  belief  as  contradistinguished  from  knowl- 
edge, and  not  always  upon  belief  in  the  very  highest 
degree  which  utterly  extinguishes  doubt,  but  in  every 
diversity  of  degree  so  long  as  any  appreciable  portion 
of  comparative  likelihood  remains,  although  many  of 
these  degrees  may  be  hampered  with  very  considerable 
doubt  as  they  actually  subsist  in  the  mind,  and  many 
more  cases  would  be  open  to  serious  doubts  if  they 
were  subjected  to  speculative  examination.  And  fur- 
ther, that  this  which  is  indisputable  in  point  of  fact,  is 
not  less  irrefragable  in  point  of  reason  ;  and  that  any 
other  rule  for  fhe  guidance  of  human  life  would  be  not 
irreligious,  but  irrational  in  the  extreme. 

We  take  first  a  case  of  the  highest  practical  certainty. 
How  do  we  know  that  the  persons  who  purport  to  be 
our  parents,  brothers  and  sisters,  really  are  what  they 
pass  for.  It  is  manifest  that  the  positive  evidence  pro- 
ducible in  each  case  often  falls  far  short  of  a  demon- 


DOUBT.  141 

ducible  in  each  case  often  falls  far  short  of  a  demon- 
strative character ;  nay  more,  it  is  perfectly  well  known 
that  in  many  cases  these  relations  have  been  pretended 
where  they  did  not  exist,  and  the  delusion  has  been 
long  or  even  permanently  maintained.  And  yet  every 
man  carries  in  his  mind  a  conviction  upon  the  subject, 
as  it  regards  himself,  utterly  exclusive  of  doubt.  And 
those  who  should  raise  doubts  upon  it,  in  consequence 
of  the  want  of  mathematical  certainty,  would  be  deemed 
fitter  for  Bedlam  than  for  the  pursuit  of  philosophical 
inquiries. 


CI. 


There  are  numberless  instances  in  which  a  very  great 
practical  uncertainty  prevails,  and  yet  where  we  must 
act  just  as  we  should  if  there  were  no  doubt  at  all. 
A  man  with  many  children  will  prepare  them  all  for 
after  life,  though  probably  one  or  more  will  die  before 
attaining  maturity.  A  tells  B  that  his  house  is  on  fire  ; 
A  may  have  motives  for  deceiving  him,  but  B,  if  he  be 
a  rational  man,  quits  the  most  interesting  occupation, 
and  goes  to  see.  But  there  is  no  end  to  the  multiplica- 
tion of  instances ;  let  any  man  examine  his  own  daily 
experience,  and  he  will  find  that  its  whole  tissue  is 
made  up  of  them ;  or,  in  the  words  of  Bishop  Butler 
"  to  us  probability  is  the  very  guide  of  life." 


142  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

CII. 

The  law  of  credibility,  upon  which  our  common  and 
indeed  universal  practice  is  founded,  has  no  more 
dependence  upon  the  magnitude  of  the  objects  to 
which  it  is  applied  than  have  the  numbers  of  the 
arithmetical  scale,  which,  with  exactly  the  same  pro- 
priety, embrace  motes  and  mountains.  It  is  not  the 
greatness  or  minuteness  of  the  proposition,  but  the 
balance  between  likelihood  and  unlikelihood,  which 
we  have  to  regard  whenever  we  are  called  to  determine 
upon  assent  or  rejection.  It  is  true,  indeed,  that  when 
the  matter  is  very  small,  the  evil  of  acting  against 
probability  will  be  small  also.  But  this  shows  that,  in 
a  practical  view,  the  obligation  of  the  law  becomes  not 
less  but  more  stringent,  as  the  rank  of  the  subject  in 
question  rises ;  because  the  best  and  most  rational 
method  of  avoiding  a  very  great  evil,  or  of  realizing  a 
very  great  good,  has  a  higher  degree  of  claim  upon 
our  consideration  and  acceptance,  in  proportion  to  the 
degree  of  greatness  belonging  to  the  object  in  view. 

cm. 

The  stages  of  mental  assent  and  dissent  are  almost 
innumerable ;  but  the  alternatives  of  action  proposed 
by  the  Christian  faith  are  two  only.  There  is  a  nar- 
row way  and  a  broad  one ;  in  the  one  or  the  other  of 


DOUBT.  143 

these  every  man,  according  to  his  testimony  must  walk. 
It  will  not  do  to  say,  I  see  this  difficulty  about  the 
Christian  theory,  so  I  cannot  adopt  it ;  and  that  diffi- 
culty about  the  anti-Christian  theory,  so  I  cannot 
embrace  that ;  I  will  wait  and  attach  myself  to  neither. 
Could  our  whole  being,  except  the  sheer  intellect,  be 
laid  in  abeyance,  such  a  notion  would  at  least  be  intel- 
ligible ;  but  in  the  meantime,  life  and  its  acts  proceed  : 

"  E  mangia  e  bee,  e  clorme,  e  veste  panni ; " 
and  not  only  as  to  these  functions,  but  also  our  moral 
habits  are  in  the  course  of  formation  or  destruction ; 
character  receives  its  bias ;  there  are  appetites  to  be 
governed,  powers  to  be  employed  ;  and  these  matters 
cannot  be  wholly,  not  at  all,  adjourned.  The  discharge 
of  the  daily  duties  of  our  position  must  (more  or  less 
perfectly)  be  adapted  beyond  question  either  to  the 
supposition  that  we  have  a  Creator  and  a  Redeemer, 
or  to  the  supposition  that  we  have  not.  There  is  no 
intermediate  verdict  of  ''  not  proven,"  which  leaves 
the  question  open  :  the  question  to  us  is,  Is  there  such 
proof  as  to  demand  obedience  ?  and  there  are  no 
possible  replies  in  act,  whatever  there  may  be  in  word, 
except  aye  and  no.  The  lines  of  conduct  are  but  two  ; 
and  our  liberty  is  limited  to  the  choice  between  them. 

CIV. 
On  a  subject  purely  abstract,  or  not  entailing  moral 


144  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

responsibilities,  upon  the  generation  of  the  present 
structure  of  the  world  by  fire  or  water,  upon  the  theory 
of  vibrations  in  optics,  upon  the  system  of  Copernicus 
or  of  Descartes,  we  might  have  taken  refuge  in  a 
philosophical  suspense,  while  the  evidence  fell  short 
of  demonstration  j  and  even  after  the  proof  has  been 
completed,  the  error  of  withholding  assent  is  not  a 
fatal  one ;  but  the  belief  which  Christianity  enforces, 
ft  enforces  as  the  foundation  of  daily  conduct,  as  the 
framework  into  which  all  acts,  all  thoughts,  all  hopes, 
affections,  and  desires,  are  to  be  cast,  and  by  which 
they  must  be  moulded.  Whatever  it  teaches,  for  ex- 
ample, concerning  the  work  and  the  person  of  our 
Lord,  it  teaches  not  in  the  abstract,  but  as  holding 
forth  him  whose  steps  we  are  to  follow,  in  whom  our 
whole  trust  is  to  be  reposed,  with  whom  we  are  to  be 
vitally  incorporated,  and  whom  accordingly  we  must 
needs  know  even  though  "  in  a  glass  darkly ; "  for  how 
can  we  imitate,  or  how  love,  without  some  kind  of 
vision,  and  how  can  definite  vision  be  transmitted 
from  man  to  man  without  language  ? 


CV. 


In  discussing  the  reception  or  rejection  of  Chris- 
tianity, according  to  its  credibility  or  incredibility,  we 
must  remember  that  it  purports  to  be  a  system  of 
belief  and  action  inseparably  combined  ;  and  therefore 


ART.  145 

that,  if  it  be  credible,  it  entails  the  obligation  not  of 
a  speculation  but  of  a  practical  question,  of  a  question 
to  be  decided  here  and  now,  which  cannot  be  relegated 
to  the  region  of  indifference,  but  which,  even  if  our 
understanding  refuse  to  act,  our  conduct  must  either 
recognize  as  true,  or  else  repudiate  as  false. 

We  contend  that  Christianity  does  not  require  the 
highest  degree  of  intellectual  certainty  in  order  to  be 
honestly  and  obediently  received  ;  and  that  the  very 
same  principles  which  govern  action  in  common  life, 
cognizable  by  common  sense,  are  those  which,  fortified 
(we  should  hold)  through  God's  mercy  with  a  singular 
accumulation  and  diversity  of  evidence,  demand  recep- 
tion of  the  word,  and  implicit  obedience  to  it;  and 
that  we  cannot  refuse  this  demand  upon  the  plea  that 
the  evidence  is  only  probable  and  not  demonstrative, 
without  rebellion  against  the  fundamental  laws  of  our 
earthly  state,  as  they  are  established,  by  a  truly  Cath- 
olic consent,  in  the  perpetual  and  universal  practice 
of  mankind. 

CVI. 

The  climax  of  all  art,  it  seems  to  be  agreed,  is  the 
rendering  of  the  human  form.  What,  then,  could  be  so 
calculated  to  raise  this  representation  to  the  acme  of 
its  excellence,  as  the  belief  that  the  human  form  was 
not  only  the  tabernacle,  but  the  original  and  proper 


146  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

shape,  the  inseparable  attribute,  of   Deity  itself?     In 
the  quaint  language  of  George  Herbert : 

"  He  that  aims  the  moon  shoots  higher  much,  than  he  that 
means  a  tree." 

And  again  as  Tennyson  has  sung : 

"It  was  my  duty  to  have  loved  the  highest. 

We  needs  must  love  the  highest  when  we  see  it, 
Not  Lancelot,  nor  another." 

It  was  this  perpetual  presentation  of  the  highest  to 
the  mind  of  the  Greek  artist,  that  cheered  him,  and 
yet,  while  it  cheered  him  and  rewarded  him,  still  ever 
spurred  him  on  in  his  pursuit.  Whatever  he  had  done, 
more  remained  to  do. 

"  Nil  actum  reputans  dum  quid  superesset  agendum*' 

The  desire,  that  marks  an  unbounded  ambition,  had 
been  granted ;  he  had  always  more  worlds  to  conquer. 
The  divine  was  made  familiar  to  him,  by  correspon- 
dence of  shape :  but  on  the  other  side,  its  elements, 
which  it  was  his  business  to  draw  forth  and  indicate  to 
men,  reached  far  away  into  the  infinite.  And  I  know 
not  what  true  definition  there  is  for  any  age  or  people 
of  the  highest  excellence  in  any  kind,  unless  it  be  per- 
petual effort  upwards  in  pursuit  of  an  object  higher  than 
ourselves,  higher  than  our  works,  higher  even  than  our 
hopes,  yet  beckoning  us  on  from  hour  to  hour,  and 
always  permitting  us  to  apprehend  in  part. 

I  venture,  then,  to  propound  at  least  for  considera- 


JUSTICE.  147 

tion  the  opinion,  that  the  fundamental  cause  of  the 
transcendent  excellence  of  the  Greek  artist  lay  in  his 
being,  by  birth  and  the  tradition  of  his  people,  as  well 
as  with  every  favoring  accessory,  both  in  idea  and  in 
form,  and  in  such  a  sense  as  no  other  artist  was,  a 
worker  upon  Deity,  conceived  as  residing,  invariably,  if 
not  essentially,  in  the  human  form.  It  is  hardly  neces- 
sary to  observe  how  the  rich  and  many-sicled  composi- 
tion of  the  Greek  mythology  favored  the  artist  in  his. 
work,  by  answering  to  the  many-sided  development  of 
the  mind  and  life  of  man. 

Unconsciously  then  to  himself,  and  in  a  sphere  of 
almost  parochial  narrowness,  the  Greek  not  only  earned 
himself  an  immortal  fame,  but  was  equipping  from  age  to 
age  a  great  School  of  Art,  to  furnish  principles  and 
models  made  ready  to  the  hand  of  that  purer  and  higher 
civilization  which  was  to  be ;  and  over  the  preparation 
of  which,  all  the  while,  Divine  Providence  was  brood- 
ing, like  the  Spirit  on  the  face  of  the  waters,  till  the 
fulness  of  time  should  come. 

CVII. 

Never  let  it  be  forgotten  that  there  is  scarcely  a  sin- 
gle moral  action  of  a  single  man  of  which  other  men 
can  have  such  knowledge,  in  its  ultimate  grounds,  its 
surrounding  incidents,  and  the  real  determining  causes 


148  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

of  its  merits,  as  to  warrant  their  pronouncing  a  conclu- 
sive judgment  upon  it. 

When  St.  Peter,  after  the  prophecy  of  his  own  mar- 
tyrdom, asked  our  Lord,  with  a  natural  curiosity,  what 
should  happen  to  St.  John,  our  Lord  replied,  "  If  I  will 
that  he  tarry  till  I  come,  what  is  that  to  thee  ?  Follow 
thou  me."  So  let  us  not  be  inquisitive  or  solicitous  to 
know  the  judgment  to  be  pronounced  upon  our  breth- 
ren, or  to  solve  the  enigmas  of  their  destiny,  but  take 
heed  to  our  own  ;  and  take  particular  heed  that  we  do 
it  no  prejudice  by  proud  or  harsh  feelings  entertained 
towards  them. 

CVIII. 

With  a  sigh  for  what  we  have  not,  we  must  be  thank- 
ful for  what  we  have,  and  leave  to  One,  wiser,  than  our- 
selves, the  deeper  problems  of  the  human  soul  and  of 
its  discipline. 

CIX. 

Hapless  is  he  on  whose  head  the  world  discharges 
the  vials  of  its  angry  virtue  ;  and  such  is  commonly 
the  case  with  the  last  and  detected  usufructuary  of  a 
golden  abuse  which  has  outlived  its  time.  In  such 
cases,  posterity  may  safely  exercise  its  royal  preroga- 
tive of  mercy. 


WAR.  149 

ex. 

The  contemporary  mind  may  in  rare  cases  be  taken 
by  storm ;  but  posterity  never.  The  tribunal  of  the 
present  is  accessible  to  influence ;  that  of  the  future 
is  incorrupt. 

CXI. 

It  is  indeed  true  that  peace  has  its  moral  perils  and 
temptations  for  degenerate  man,  as  has  every  other 
blessing  without  exception,  that  he  can  receive  from 
the  hand  of  God.  It  is  moreover  not  less  true  that 
amidst  the  clash  of  arms,  the  noblest  forms  of  char- 
acter may  be  reared,  and  the  highest  acts  of  duty 
done ;  that  these  great  and  precious  results  may  be 
due  to  war  as  their  cause ;  and  that  one  high  form  of 
sentiment  in  particular,  the  love  of  country,  receives 
a  powerful  and  general  stimulus  from  the  bloody  strife. 
But  this  is  as  the  furious  cruelty  of  Pharaoh  made 
place  for  the  benign  virtue  of  his  daughter;  as  the 
butchering  sentence  of  Herod  raised  without  doubt 
many  a  mother's  love  into  heroic  sublimity ;  as  plague, 
as  famine,  as  fire,  as  flood,  as  every  curse  and  every 
scourge,  that  is  wielded  by  an  angry  Providence  for 
the  chastisement  of  man,  is  an  appointed  instrument 
for  tempering  human  souls  in  the  seven-times  heated 


150  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

furnace  of  affliction,  up  to  the  standard  of  angelic  and 
archangelic  virtue. 


CXII. 

War,  indeed,  has  the  property  of  exciting  much  gen- 
erous and  noble  feeling  on  a  large  scale  ;  but  with 
this  special  recommendation  it  has,  in  its  modern 
forms  especially,  peculiar  and  unequalled  evils.  As  it 
has  a  wider  sweep  of  desolating  power  than  the  rest, 
so  it  has  the  peculiar  quality  that  it  is  more  suscepti- 
ble of  being  decked  in  gaudy  trappings,  and  of  fasci- 
nating the  imagination  of  those  whose  proud  and*  angry 
passions  it  inflames.  But  it  is,  on  this  very  account, 
a  perilous  delusion  to  teach  that  war  is  a  cure  for 
moral  evil,  in  any  other  sense  than  as  the  sister  tribu- 
lations are. 

CXIII. 

One  inevitable  characteristic  of  modern  war  is,  that 
it  is  associated  throughout,  in  all  its  particulars,  with 
a  vast  and  most  irregular  formation  of  commercial 
enterprise.  There  is  no  incentive  to  mammon-worship 
so  remarkable  as  that  which  it  affords.  The  political 
economy  of  war  is  now  one  of  its  most  commanding 
aspects.  Every  farthing,  with  the  smallest  exceptions 


THE  PULPIT.  I51 

conceivable,  of  the  scores  or  hundreds  of  millions 
which  a  war  may  cost,  goes  directly,  and  very  violently 
to  stimulate  production,  though  it  is  intended  ulti- 
mately for  waste  or  for  destruction.  Even  apart  from 
the  fact  that  war  suspends,  ipso  facto,  every  rule  of 
public  thrift,  and  tends  to  sap  honesty  itself  in  the 
use  of  the  public  treasure  for  which  it  makes  such 
unbounded  calls,  it  therefore  is  the  greatest  feeder  of 
that  lust  of  gold  which  we  are  told  is  the  essence  of 
commerce,  though  we  had  hoped  it  was  only  its  occa- 
sional besetting  sin. 

CXIV. 

In  the  innumerable  combinations  of  the  political 
chess-board,  there  is  none  more  difficult  for  an  upright 
man  than  to  discern  the  exact  path  of  duty,  when  he 
has  shared  in  bringing  his  country  into  war,  and  when, 
in  the  midst  of  that  war,  he  finds,  or  believes  himself 
to  find,  that  it  is  being  waged  for  purposes  in  excess 
of  those  which  he  had  approved. 

CXV. 

Many  a  clergyman  will  think  that,  if  he  has  embod- 
ied in  his  sermon  a  piece  of  good  divinity,  the  deed  is 
done,  the  end  of  preaching  is  attained.  But  the  busi- 
ness of  a  sermon  is  to  move  as  well  as  teach ;  and  if 


152  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

he  teaches  only  without  moving,  may  it  not  almost  be 
said  that  he  sows  by  the  wayside  ?  It  is  often  said, 
censoriously,  to  be  a  great  advantage  possessed  by  the 
clergy,  that  no  one  can  answer  them.  To  a  bad  clergy- 
man this  may  be  an  advantage,  in  respect  that  it  allows 
him  to  remain  bad,  and  to  grow  worse  with  impunity. 
But  to  the  true  preacher  or  speaker,  it  surely  is  far 
otherwise.  It  relaxes  that  healthy  tension,  that  bra- 
cing sense  of  responsibility,  under  which  we  must  habit- 
uate ourselves  to  act,  if  we  are  ever  to  do  anything 
that  is  worth  the  doing.  It  is,  then,  no  advantage,  but 
rather  a  temptation  and  a  snare. 

CXVI. 

The  sermons  of  Dr.  Macleod  were,  it  appears,  to 
a  great  extent,  written  but  not  read.  The  sermons 
of  Dr.  Chalmers  were  certainly  in  some  cases,  if 
not  in  all,  both  written  and  read.  But  the  Scotch 
ministers  of  any  note  who  read  their  sermons  take, 
or  used  to  take,  good  care  to  read  as  if  read- 
ing not.  To  a  great  extent  Scottish  sermons  were 
delivered  without  book,  having  been  committed  to 
memory.  When  notes  were  used,  they  were  sometimes, 
as  much  as  might  be,  concealed  on  a  small  shelf  within 
the  pulpit,  for  the  people  had  a  prejudice,  almost 
a  superstition  against  "the  papers,"  and  could  not 
reconcile  them  with  the  action  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in 


THE  PULPIT.  153 

in  the  preaching  of  the  gospel.  Reading,  pure  and 
simple,  was  very  rare.  Apart  from  the  rare  ques- 
tion of  the  merit  of  this  or  that  form  in  the  abstract, 
there  was  a  traditional  and  almost  universal  idea  of 
preaching,  as  a  kind  of  spiritual  wrestling  with  a  con- 
gregation ;  and  the  better  professors  of  the  art  entered 
into  it  as  athletes,  and  strove  habitually  and  through- 
out to  get  a  good  "grip"  of  the  hearer,  as  truly  and 
as  much  as  a  Cumbrian  wrestler  struggles,  with  per- 
sistent and  varied  movements  to  get  a  good  grip  of 
his  antagonist. 

CXVII. 

\ 

To  give  effect  to  this  idea,  in  preaching  or  in  other 
speaking,  the  hearers  must  be  regarded  in  some  sense 
as  one.  All  fear  of  the  individual  must  be  discarded. 
Respect  for  the  body  may  be  maintained,  and  may  be 
exhibited  by  pleading,  by  expostulating,  by  beseech- 
ing ;  but  always  with  a  reserve  and  under-thought  of 
authority,  of  a  title  to  exhort,  rebuke,  convince.  It  is 
really  the  constitution  of  a  direct  and  intimate  personal 
relation,  for  the  moment,  between  preacher  and  hearers, 
which  lies  at  the  root  of  the  matter  ;  such  a  relation 
as  establishes  itself  spontaneously  between  two  per- 
sons, who  are  engaged  in  an  earnest  practical  conver- 
sation to  decide  whether  some  given  thing  shall  or 
shall  not  be  done ;  and  for  this  reason  it  is  that  we 


154  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

suggest  that  the  mass  of  living  humanity  gathered  in 
a  congregation  should  be  dealt  with  both  as  human, 
and  as  one ;  that  unless  in  exceptional  junctures,  the 
preacher  might  find  a  pathway  of  power,  as  the  singer, 
the  instrumentalist,  or  the  actor  does,  in  treating  a 
crowd  as  an  unity. 

What  has  now  been  said,  is  said  tentatively,  and  so 
to  speak  provocatively,  not  to  offer  the  solution  of  a 
great  problem,  but  at  any  rate  to  set  others  upon 
solving  it. 

For  a  great  problem  it  is  ;  and  a  solution  is  required. 
The  problem  is  how,  in  the  face  of  the  press,  the 
tribune,  the  exchange,  the  club,  the  multiplied  solici- 
tations of  modern  life,  to  awaken  in  full  the  dormant 
powers  of  the  pulpit,  which,  though  it  has  lost  its 
exclusive  privileges,  has  not  in  the  least  degree  abated 
the  grandeur  of  its  function,  and  is  as  able  as  it  ever 
was  manfully  to  compete  for,  and  largely  to  share  in, 
the  command  of  the  human  spirit,  and  of  the  life  it 
rules. 

CXVIII. 

We  should  remember  that  our  religion  itself  did  not 
take  its  earliest  root,  or  find  its  primitive  home  in  the 
minds  of  kings,  philosophers,  and  statesmen.  Not 
many  rich,  not  many  noble  were  called.  The  wisdom 
and  the  culture  were  mostly  plotting  against  our  Lord, 


RICH  AND  POOR.  155 

while  the  common  people  heard  him  gladly.  But  the 
regenerating  forces  of  the  gospel  made  their  way  from 
the  base  to  the  summit  of  society  ;  and  the  highest 
thought  and  intellect  of  man,  won  with  time  to  the 
noble  service,  hired  as  it  were  at  the  sixth,  ninth,  and 
eleventh  hour,  wrought  hard  and  with  effect  to  develop, 
defend,  and  consolidate  the  truth.  Paradox  it  may 
seem  to  be,  but  fact  it  is,  that  the  immense  advantages 
which  leisure  and  learning  have  conferred  are  largely 
neutralized,  and  in  some  cases  utterly  outweighed,  by 
the  blinding  influences  of  a  subtler,  deeper,  and  more 
comprehensive  selfishness. 

CXIX. 

Moral  elements  of  character  are  as  true,  and  often 
as  powerful  a  factor,  in  framing  judgments  upon  mat- 
ters of  human  interest  and  action  as  intellectual  forces. 
But  there  is  another  element  in  the  question  not  less 
vital :  the  character  of  the  surroundings,  the  contigu- 
ous objects  of  attraction  and  repulsion,  the  beguiling 
and  tempting  agencies  in  the  midst  of  which  we  live. 
Those  who  have  but  a  sufficiency  for  life  set  a  less 
value  perhaps  upon  it,  and  certainly  upon  its  incidental 
advantages,  than  persons  who  live  in  the  midst  of 
superfluities  varying  from  a  few  to  a  multitude  almost 
numberless.  These  superfluities  are  like  the  threads 
that  bound  down  Gulliver  to  the  soil ;  and  they  form 


I56  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

habits  of  mind  which  at  length  pass  into  our  fixed 
mental  and  moral  constitution,  and  cease  to  form  ob- 
jects of  distinct  consciousness.  If  it  be  true  that 
wealth  and  ease  bring  with  them  in  a  majority  of  cases 
an  increased  growth  in  the  hardening  crust  of  egotism 
and  selfishness,  the  deduction  thereby  made  from  the 
capacity  of  right  judgment  in  large  and  most  import- 
ant questions,  may  be  greater  than  the  addition  which 
leisure,  money,  and  opportunity  have  allowed. 

I  touch  here  upon  deep  mines  of  truth,  never  yet 
explored,  nor  within  the  power  of  human  inteliigence 
to  explore  fully,  though  we  are  taught  to  believe  in 
an  Eye  that  has  observed,  and  a  Mind  that  has  accu- 
rately registered  the  whole.  Even  in  the  present  twi- 
light of  our  practical  and  moral  knowledge,  we  may 
perceive,  by  every  form  of  instance,  how  often  the 
wisdom  of  love,  goodness  and  simplicity  wins,  even  in 
the  races  of  this  world,  against  the  wisdom  of  crafty 
and  astute  self-seeking.  Even  more  is  this  true  in  the 
fields  of  open  thought  than  in  the  direct  and  sharp 
competitions  of  lite.  In  questions  to  which  his  bud- 
cling  knowledge  reaches,  even  the  child  has  often  a 
more  serene  and  effective  sense  of  justice  than  a 
grown  man  ;  and  a  partial  analogy  obtains  between  the 
relations  of  age  and  those  of  class.  History  affords, 
I  think,  a  grand  and  powerful  illustration  of  the  argu- 
ment in  the  case  of  the  acceptance  of  Christianity ; 
which  acceptance  will  be  admitted,  I  presume,  to  have 


RICH  AND  POOR.  157 

been  a  great  advance  upon  the  road  of  truth  and  of 
human  we  fare.  Was  it  the  wealthy  and  the  learned 
who,  with  their  vast  advantages,  and  their  supposed 
exemption  from  special  sources  of  error,  outstripped 
their  humbler  fellow-creatures  in  bowing  their  heads 
to  the  authority  of  the  gospel  ?  Did  Scribes  and 
Pharisees,  or  did  shepherds  and  fishermen,  yield  the 
first,  most  and  readiest  converts  to  the  Saviour  and 
the  company  of  his  apostles  ?  It  was  not  an  arbitrary 
act,  for  there  is  no  such  act  of  the  Almighty,  which 
"  hid  these  things  from  the  wise  and  prudent  and 
revealed  them  unto  babes."  The  whole  code  of  our 
Saviour's  teaching  on  the  condition  of  rich  and  poor 
with  reference  to  the  acceptance  of  moral  truth  is  not 
the  rhetoric  of  an  enthusiast,  nor  the  straightened 
philosophy  of  a  local  notable,  who  mistook  the  acci- 
dents of  one  time  and  place  for  principles  of  universal 
knowledge.  They  were  the  utterances  of  the  Wisdom 
that 

"  Lives  through  all  life,  extends  through  all  extent, 
Spreads  undivided,  operates  unspent," 

cxx. 

As  the  barbarian,  with  his  undeveloped  organs,  sees 
and  hears  at  distances  which  the  senses  of  the  cultured 
state  cannot  overpass,  and  yet  is  utterly  deficient  as 
to  fine  details  of  sound  and  color,  even  so  it  seems 


158  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

that,  in  judging  of  the  great  questions  of  policy  which 
appeal  to  the  primal  truths  and  laws  of  our  nature, 
those  classes  may  excel  who  if  they  lack  the  opportu- 
nities, yet  escape  the  subtle  perils  of  the  wealthy  state. 
True,  they  receive  much  of  their  instruction  from 
persons  of  the  classes  above  them,  from  the  "  minority 
of  the  minority ;"  but  this  in  no  way  mends  the  argu- 
ment on  behalf  of  the  majority  of  the  minority,  who 
habitually  reject,  as  it  passes  by  their  doors,  that  teach- 
ing which  the  men  of  the  highways  and  the  hedges  as 
commonly  are  eager,  or  leady,  to  receive. 

CXXI. 

A  life  that  is  to  be  active  ought  to  find  refreshment 
in  the  midst  of  labors,  nay,  to  draw  refreshment  from 
them.  But  this  it  cannot  do,  unless  the  man  can  take 
up  the  varied  employments  of  the  world  with  some- 
thing of  a  child-like  freshness.  It  is  that  especial  light 
of  Heaven,  described  by  Wordsworth  in  his  immortal 

"  Ode  on  the  Recollections  of  Childhood,"  that  light  — 
"Which  lies  about  us  in  our  infancy," 

which  attends  the  youth  upon  his  way,  but  at  length  — 
"  The  man  perceives  it  die  away 
And  fade  into  the  light  of  common  day." 

Its  radiance  still  plays  only  about  those  few  who 
strive  earnestly  to  keep  themselves  unspotted  from 
the  world,  and  are  victors  in  the  strife. 


GO  VERNMEN  T.  1 59 

CXXII. 

The  promises  and  purposes  of  the  Creator  are  not 
for  an  age  but  for  the  ages,  and  not  for  a  tribe  but 
for  mankind. 

CXXIII. 

The  three  highest  titles  that  can  be  given  a  man 
are  those  of  martyr,  hero,  saint. 

CXXIV. 

The  greatest,  apparently,  of  all  the  difficulties  in 
establishing  true  popular  government  is  the  difficulty 
—  it  should,  perhaps,  be  said  the  impossibility  —  of 
keeping  the  national  pulse  in  a  state  of  habitual  and 
healthy  animation.  At  certain  junctures  it  may  be 
raised  even  to  a  feverish  heat.  But  these  accesses 
are.  in  all  countries,  short  and  rare ;  they  come  and 
go  like  the  passing  wave.  The  movement  is  below  par 
a  hundred  times  that  it  is  above.  The  conditions  of 
life  bear  lightly  upon  the  few,  but  hard  upon  the 
many.  To  the  many,  politics  of  an  operative  quality 
are  in  ordinary  times  an  impossibility,  in  the  most 
favorable  times  a  burden  ;  but  to  the  few,  with  their 
wealth  and  leisure,  they  are  an  easy  and  healthful 
exercise,  nay,  often  an  entertainment  and  even  a  luxury 


160  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

and  a  seasoning  of  life.  At  unexciting  seasons,  the 
member  of  the  upper  or  middle  class  will  usually 
cleave  to  his  party.  But  I  apprehend  that  the  ties  of 
party,  as  distinct  from  those  of  sympathy,  opinion, 
and  personal  confidence  in  leaders,  are  less  felt  among 
the  masses  than  among  those  in  superior  circum- 
stances. The  present  weighs  more  heavily  upon  them  ; 
and  they  must  have  as  a  rule  other  circumstances  being 
equal,  less  energy  available  either  for  the  anticipation 
of  the  future,  or  the  retention  of  the  past. 

The  liberties  of  our  fellow  subjects  form  a  theme  of 
too  high  a  nature  to  be  determined  by  the  interests 
of  party.  They  ought  to  be  extended,  irrespective  of 
their  effects  on  party,  to  the  furthest  points  compat- 
ible with  the  well-being  of  the  Constitution,  with  the 
established  public  order  under  which  they  live.  They 
are  a  gift  so  good  in  themselves,  so  full  of  educating 
power,  so  apt  to  enhance  and  multiply  the  aggregate 
of  the  nation's  energies,  that  nothing  can  equitably 
be  placed  in  competition  with  them,  unless  it  be  the 
security  of  that  public  order. 

cxxv. 

Augmentation  of  vital  power  in  the  State  is  what 
every  wise  and  good  citizen  should  desire.  The  more 
closely,  and  the  more  largely,  the  power  of  human  will, 
affections  and  understanding  can  be  placed  in  associa 


GOVERNMENT.  161 

tion  with  the  mainsprings  of  the  State,  the  greater  will 
be  that  augmentation. 

% 

CXXVI. 

Every  trade  has  its  secrets.  The  baker  and  the 
brewer,  the  carpenter  and  the  mason,  all  the  fraternity 
of  handicraft  and  production,  have,  where  they  under- 
stand their  business,  certain  nice  minutiiz  of  action, 
neither  intelligible  to  nor  seen  by  the  observer  from 
without,  but  upon  which  niceties  the  whole  efficiency 
of  their  work,  and  the  just  balance  of  its  parts,  depend. 
There  is  nowhere  a  more  subtle  machinery  than  that 
of  the  British  Cabinet.  It  has  no  laws.  It  has  no 
records.  Of  the  few  who  pass  within  the  magic  circle, 
and  belong  to  it,  many  never  examine  the  mechanism 
which  they  help  to  work.  Only  the  most  vague  con- 
ceptions respecting  its  structure  and  operations  are 
afloat  in  the  public  mind.  These  things  may  be  pretty 
safely  asserted :  that  it  is  not  a  thing  made  to  order 
but  a  growth  ;  and  that  no  subject  of  equal  importance 
has  been  so  little  studied.  We  need  not  wonder  if 
even  to  the  most  intelligent  foreigner,  who  gets  it 
up  as  a  lesson  from  a  school-book,  it  is  an  unsolved 
riddle. 

CXXVII. 
The   nicest  of  all  the  adjustments  involved  in  the 


1 62  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

working  of  the  British  Government  is  that  which  deter- 
mines, without  formally  defining,  the  internal  relations 
of  the  Cabinet.  On  the  one  hand,  while  each  minister 
is  an  adviser  of  the  Crown,  the  Cabinet  is  a  unity,  and 
none  of  its  members  can  advise  as  an  individual,  with- 
out, or  in  opposition  actual  or  presumed  to,  his  col 
leagues.  On  the  other  hand,  the  business  of  the  State 
is  a  hundred-fold  too  great  in  volume  to  allow  of  the 
actual  passing  of  the  whole  under  the  view  of  the 
collected  Ministry.  It  is  therefore  a  prime  office  of 
discretion  for  each  minister  to  settle  what  are  the 
departmental  acts  in  which  he  can  presume  the  con- 
currence of  his  colleagues,  and  in  what  more  delicate, 
or  weighty,  or  peculiar  cases,  he  must  positively  ascer- 
tain it.  So  much  for  the  relation  of  each  minister  to 
the  Cabinet;  but  here  we  touch  the  point  which 
involves  another  relation,  perhaps  the  least  known  of 
all,  his  relation  to  its  head. 

The  head  of  the  British  Government  is  not  a  Grand 
Vizier.  He  has  no  powers,  properly  so  called,  over 
colleagues  :  on  the  rare  occasions,  when  a  Cabinet  de- 
termines its  course  by  the  votes  of  its  members,  his 
vote  counts  only  as  theirs.  But  they  are  appointed 
and  dismissed  by  the  Sovereign  on  his  advice.  In  a 
perfectly  organized  administration,  such  for  example 
as  was  that  of  Sir  Robert  Peel  in  1841-6,  nothing  of 
great  importance  is  matured,  or  would  even  be  pro- 
jected in  any  department  without  his  personal  cogni- 


GOVERNMENT.  163 

sance ;  and  any  weighty  business  would  commonly  go 
to  him  before  being  submitted  to  the  Cabinet.  He 
reports  to  the  Sovereign  his  proceedings,  and  he  also 
has  many  audiences  of  the  august  occupant  of  the 
throne.  He  is  bound,  in  these  reports  and  audiences, 
not  to  counterwork  the  Cabinet ;  not  to  divide  it ;  not 
to  undermine  the  position  of  any  of  his  colleagues 
in  the  Royal  favor.  If  he  departs  in  any  degree 
from  strict  adherence  to  these  rules,  and  uses  his 
great  opportunities  to  increase  his  own  influence, 
or  pursue  aims  not  shared  by  his  colleagues,  then, 
unless  he  is  prepared  to  advise  their  dismissal, 
he  not  only  departs  from  rule,  but  commits  an  act 
of  treachery  and  baseness.  As  the  Cabinet  stands 
between  the  Sovereign  and  the  Parliament,  and  is 
bound  to  be  loyal  to  both,  so  he  stands  between  his 
colleagues  and  the  Sovereign,  and  is  bound  to  be  loyal 
to  both. 

CXXVIII. 

In  the  ordinary  administration  of  the  government, 
the  Sovereign  personally  is,  so  to  speak,  behind  the 
scenes ;  performing  indeed,  many  personal  acts  by  the 
Sign-manual,  or  otherwise,  but,  in  each  and  all  of 
them,  covered  by  the  counter-signature  or  advice 
of  ministers,  who  stand  between  the  august  Personage 
and  the  people.  There  is,  accordingly,  no  more  power, 
under  the  form  of  the  British  Constitution,  to  assail  a 


1 64  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

Monarch  in  his  personal  capacity,  or  to  assail  through 
him,  the  line  of  succession  to  the  Crown,  than  there 
is  at  chess  to  put  the  king  in  check.  In  truth,  a  good 
deal,  though  by  no  means  the  whole,  of  the  philosophy 
of  the  British  Constitution  is  represented  in  this 
central  point  of  the  wonderful  game,  against  which  the 
only  reproach  —  the  reproach  of  Lord  Bacon  — is  that 
it  is  hardly  a  relaxation,  but  rather  a  serious  tax  upon 
the  brain. 

The  Sovereign  in  England  is  the  symbol  of  the 
nation's  unity,  and  the  apex  of  the  social  structure ; 
the  maker  (with  advice)  of  the  laws ;  the  supreme 
governor  of  the  Church ;  the  fountain  of  justice ;  the 
sole  source  of  honor  ;  the  person  to  whom  all  military, 
all  naval,  all  civil  service  is  rendered.  The  Sovereign 
owns  very  large  properties ;  receives  and  holds,  in  law, 
the  entire  revenue  of  the  State  ;  appoints  and  dis- 
misses ministers ;  makes  treaties,  pardons  crime,  or 
abates  its  punishment ;  wages  war  or  concludes  peace ; 
summons  and  dissolves  the  Parliament ;  exercises  these 
vast  powers  for  the  most  part  without  any  specified 
restraint  of  law ;  and  yet  enjoys,  in  regard  to  these 
and  every  other  function,  an  absolute  immunity  from 
consequences.  There  is  no  provision  in  the  law  of  the 
United  Empire,  or  in  the  machinery  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, for  calling  the  Sovereign  to  account ;  and  only 
in  one  solitary  and  improbable,  but  perfectly  defined 
case  —  that  of  his  submitting  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the 


GO  VERNMEX  T.  165 

Pope  —  is  he  deprived  by  statute  of  the  throne.  Set- 
ting aside  that  peculiar  exception,  the  offspring  of  a 
necessity  still  freshly  felt  when  it  was  made,  the  Con- 
stitution might  seem  to  be  founded  on  the  belief  of 
a  real  infallibility  in  its  head.  Less,  at  any  rate,  cannot 
be  said  than  this.  Regal  right  has,  since  the  Revolu- 
tion of  1688,  been  expressly  founded  upon  contract; 
and  the  breach  of  that  contract  destroys  the  title  to 
the  allegiance  of  the  subject.  But  no  provision,  other 
than  the  general  rule  of  hereditary  succession,  is  made 
to  meet  either  this  case,  or  any  other  form  of  political 
miscarriage  or  misdeed.  It  seems  as  though  the  genius 
of  the  nation  would  not  stain  its  lips  by  so  much  as 
the  mere  utterance  of  such  a  word ;  nor  can  we  put 
this  state  of  facts  into  language  more  justly  than  by 
saying  that  the  Constitution  would  regard  the  default 
of  the  monarch  with  his  heirs,  as  the  chaos  of  the 
State,  and  would  simply  trust  to  the  inherent  energies 
of  the  several  orders  of  society  for  its  legal  recon- 
struction. 

CXXIX. 

Of  old,  the  Icing  had  all  his  splendors  and  all  his 
enjoyments  weighted  by  the  heavy  cares,  and  very 
real  and  rude  responsibilities,  of  government ;  and 
"  uneasy  lay  the  head  that  wore  a  crown.  "  It  was  a 
truth  as  old  as  the  time  of  Troy,  when  other  gods  and 


166  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

warriors  slept,  Zeus  alone  was  wakeful.  Thus  it  was 
that  power,  and  luxury,  and,  what  is  far  more  insid- 
ious, flattery,  were  then  compensated  and  left  in 
check.  In  the  British  Monarchy,  the  lodgment  of  the 
various  parts  of  this  great  whole,  making  up  a  King's 
condition,  is  changed,  and  their  moral  equilibrium  put 
in  jeopardy.  There  are  still  gathered  the  splendors, 
the  enjoyments,  all  the  notes  of  homage,  all  the  eager 
obedience,  the  anticipation  of  wishes,  the  surrender 
of  adverse  opinions,  the  true  and  loyal  defence,  and 
the  deference  which  is  factitious  and  conventional. 
To  be  served  by  all  is  dangerous ;  to  be  contradicted 
by  none  is  worse.  Taking  into  view  the  immense  in- 
crease in  the  appliances  of  material  ease  and  luxury, 
the  general  result  is,  that  in  the  private  and  domestic 
sphere  a  Royal  will  enjoys  at  this  epoch,  more  nearly 
than  in  any  past  generation,  the  privileges  of  a  kind 
of  omnipotence.  At  the  same  time,  the  principal' 
burden  of  care,  and  all  responsibility  for  acts  of  ad- 
ministration, and  for  the  state  of  the  country,  is  trans- 
ferred to  the  heads  of  others,  and  even  the  voice  of 
the  lightest  criticism  is  rarely  heard.  In  these  circum- 
stances it  remains  singularly  true,  that  the  duties  of  a 
Court  entail  in  their  full  scope  a  serious  and  irksome 
task,  and  that  there  must  be  much  self-denial,  and 
much  merit,  in  their  due  discharge.  But  it  is  also  in 
other  duties,  principally  remote  from  the  public  eye, 
that  the  largest  scope  is  afforded  for  the  patient  and 


GOVERNMENT.  167 

watchful  labor  in  public  affairs  which,  balancing  effec- 
tually mere  splendor  and  enjoyment,  secures  the  true 
nobleness  of  kingship  against  the  subtle  inroads  of 
selfishness,  and  raises  to  their  maximum  at  once  the 
toil,  the  usefulness,  and  the  influence  of  the  British 
Throne.  Never,  probably,  under  any  circumstances, 
be  they  favorable  as  they  may,  can  these  reach  a  higher 
point  of  elevation  than  they  had  attained  by  the  joint 
efforts,  and  during  the  married  life,  of  Queen  Victoria 
and  the  Prince  Consort.  Nor  can  we  well  overvalue 
that  addition  of  masculine  energy  to  female  tact  and 
truth  which  brought  the  working  of  British  Royalty 
so  neai  the  standard  of  ideal  excellence. 

cxxx. 

Little  are  they  who  gaze  from  without  upon  long 
trains  of  splendid  equipages  rolling  towards  a  palace, 
conscious  of  the  meaning  and  the  force  that  live  in 
the  forms  of  a  Monarchy,  probably  the  most  ancient, 
and  certainly  the  most  solid  and  the  most  revered,  in 
all  Europe.  The  acts,  the  wishes,  the  example,  of  the 
sovereign  of  England  are  a  real  power.  An  immense 
reverence  and  a  tender  affection  await  upon  the  person 
of  the  one  permanent  and  ever  faithful  guardian  of 
the  fundamental  conditions  of  the  Constitution.  She 
is  the  symbol  of  law  ;  she  is  by  law,  and  setting  apart 
the  metaphysics,  and  the  abnormal  incidents,  of  rev- 


168  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

olution,  the  source  of  power.  Parliament  and  Minis- 
tries pass,  but  she  abides  in  life-long  duty ;  and  she 
is  to  them  as  the  oak  in  the  forest  is  to  the  annual 
harvest  in  the  field.  When  the  august  functions  of  the 
Crown  are  irradiated  by  intelligence  and  virtue  they 
are  transformed  into  a  higher  dignity  than  words  can 
convey,  or  Acts  of  Parliament  can  confer  ;  and  tradi- 
tional loyalty,  with  a  generous  people,  acquires  the 
force  (as  Mr.  Burke  says)  of  a  passion  and  the  warmth 
of  personal  attachment. 

CXXXI. 

Some  men  would  draw  disparaging  comparisons 
between  the  mediaeval  and  the  modern  King.  In  the 
person  of  the  first  was  normally  embodied  the  force 
paramount  over  all  others  in  the  country,  and  on  him 
was  laid  a  weight  of  responsibility  and  toil  so  tremen- 
dous, that  his  function  seemed  always  to  border  upon 
the  superhuman ;  that  his  life  commonly  wore  out 
before  the  natural  term ;  and  that  an  indescribable 
majesty,  dignity,  and  interest  surround  him  in  his 
misfortunes,  nay,  almost  in  his  degradation ;  as  for 
instance,  amidst 

"  The  shrieks  of  death  through    Berkeley's    roof  that 

ring, 
Shrieks  of  an  agonizing  King." 

For  this  concentration  of  powe-    toil,  and  liability 


GO  VERNMEN  T.  \  69 

milder  realities  have  now  been  substituted;  and  min- 
isterial responsibility  comes  between  the  monarch  and 
every  public  trial  and  necessity,  like  armor  between 
flesh  and  the  spear  that  would  seek  to  pierce  it ;  only 
this  is  an  armor  itself  also  fleshly,  at  once  living  and 
impregnable.  It  may  be  said,  by  an  adverse  critic, 
that  the  Constitutional  Monarch  is  only  a  depository  of 
power,  as  an  armory  is  a  depository  of  arms  ;  but  that 
those  who  wield  the  arms,  and  those  alone,  constitute 
the  true  governing  authority.  And  no  doubt  this  is  so 
far  true,  that  the  scheme  aims  at  associating  in  the 
work  of  government  with  the  head  of  the  State  the 
persons  best  adapted  to  meet  the  wants  and  wishes  of 
the  people,  under  the  conditions  that  the  several 
aspects  of  supreme  power  shall  be  severally  allotted ; 
dignity  and  visible  authority  shall  lie  wholly  with  the 
wearer  of  the  crown,  but  labor  mainly,  and  responsi- 
bility wholly,  with  its  sen-ants.  From  hence,  without 
doubt,  it  follows  that  should  differences  arise,  it  is  the 
will  of  those  in  whose  minds  the  work  of  government 
is  elaborated,  that  in  the  last  resort  must  prevail. 
From  mere  labor,  power  may  be  severed ;  but  not  from 
labor  joined  with  responsibility.  This  capital  and  vital 
consequence  flows  out  of  the  principle  that  the  political 
action  of  the  Monarch  shall  everywhere  be  mediate  and 
conditional  upon  the  concurrence  of  confidential  ad- 
visers. It  is  impossible  to  reconcile  any,  even  the 
smallest  abatement  of  this  doctrine,  with  the  peifect 


i/o  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

absolute  immunity  of  the  Sovereign  from  consequences. 
There  can  be  in  England  no  disloyalty  more  gross,  as 
to  its  effects,  than  the  superstition  which  affects  to 
assign  to  the  Sovereign  a  separate,  and,  so  far  as 
separate,  transcendental  sphere  of  political  action. 
Anonymous  servility  has,  indeed  in  these  last  days, 
limited  such  a  doctrine ;  but  it  is  no  more  practicable 
to  make  it  thrive  in  England,  than  to  rear  the  jungles 
of  Bengal  on  Salisbury  Plain. 

CXXXII. 

The  British  Cabinet  is  essentially  the  regulator  of 
the  relations  between  Kings,  Lords,  and  Commons; 
exercising  functionally  the  powers  of  the  first,  and 
incorporated,  in  the  persons  of  its  members,  with  the 
second  and  the  third.  It  is,  therefore,  itself  a  great 
power.  But  let  no  one  suppose  it  is  the  greatest.  In 
a  balance  nicely  poised,  a  small  weight  may  turn  the 
scale  ;  and  the  helm  that  directs  the  ship  is  not  stronger 
than  the  ship.  It  is  a  cardinal  maxim  of  the  modern 
British  Constitution,  that  the  House  of  Commons  is 
the  greatest  of  the  powers  of  the  State.  It  might,  by 
a  base  subserviency  fling  itself  at  the  feet  of  a  Monarch 
or  a  Minister ;  it  might,  in  a  season  of  exhaustion 
allow  the  slow  persistence  of  the  Lords,  ever  eyeing  it 
as  Lancelot  was  eyed  by  Modred,  to  invade  its  just 
province  by  baffling  its  action  at  some  time  propitious 


GOVERNMENT.  17 1 

for  the  purpose.  But  no  Constitution  can  anywhere 
keep  either  Sovereign,  or  Assembly,  or  nation,  true  to 
its  trust  and  to  itself.  All  that  can  be  done  has  been 
done.  The  Commons  are  armed  with  ample  powers 
of  self-defence.  If  they  use  their  powers  properly, 
they  can  only  be  mastered  by  a  recurrence  to  the 
people,  and  the  way  in  which  the  appeal  can  succeed 
is  by  the  choice  of  another  House  of  Commons  more 
agreeable  to  the  national  temper.  Thus  the  sole  ap- 
peal from  the  verdict  of  the  House  is  a  rightful  appeal 
to  those  from  whom  it  received  its  commission. 

CXXXIII. 

The  British  Cabinet  and  all  the  present  relations  of 
the  Constitutional  powers  of  England,  have  grown  into 
their  present  dimensions,  and  settled  into  their  present 
places,  not  as  the  fruit  of  a  philosophy,  not  in  the 
effort  to  give  effect  to  an  abstract  .principle ;  but  by 
the  silent  action  of  forces,  invisible  and  insensible,  the 
structure  has  come  up  into  the  view  of  all  the  world. 

When  men  repeat  the  proverb  which  teaches  us  that 
"  marriages  are  made  in  heaven,"  what  they  mean 
is  that,  in  the  most  fundamental  of  all  social  opera- 
tions, the  building  up  of  the  family,  the  issues  involved 
in  the  nuptial  contract,  lie  beyond  the  best  exercise  of 
human  thoughts,  and  the  unseen  forces  of  providential 
government  make  good  the  defect  in  our  imperfect 


172  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

capacity.  Even  so  would  it  seem  to  have  been  in  that 
curious  marriage  of  competing  influences  and  powers, 
which  brings  about  the  composite  harmony  of  the 
British  Constitution.  More,  it  must  be  admitted,  than 
any  other,  it  leaves  open  doors  which  lead  into  blind 
alleys  for  it  presumes,  more  boldly  than  any  other,  the 
good  sense  and  good  faith  of  those  who  work  it.  If 
unhappily,  these  personages  meet  together,  on  the 
great  arena  of  a  nation's  fortunes,  as  jockeys  meet 
upon  a  race-course,  each  to  urge  to  the  uttermost, 
as  against  the  others,  the  power  of  the  animal  he 
rides,  gr  as  counsel  in  a  court,  each  to  procure  the 
victory  of  his  client,  without  respect  to  any  other  inter- 
est or  right,  then  this  boasted  Constitution  is  neither 
more  nor  less  than  a  heap  of  absurdities.  The  un- 
doubted competency  of  each  reaches  even  to  the 
paralysis  or  destruction  of  the  rest.  The  House  of 
Commons  is  entitled  to  refuse  every  shilling  of  the 
supplies.  That  House,  and  also  the  House  of  Lords, 
is  entitled  to  refuse  its  assent  to  every  bill  presented 
to  it.  The  Crown  is  entitled  to  make  a  thousand 
Peers  to-day  and  as  many  to-morrows  ;  it  may  dissolve 
all  and  every  Parliament  before  it  proceeds  to  busi- 
ness ;  may  pardon  the  most  atrocious  crimes ;  may 
declare  war  against  all  the  world ;  may  conclude 
treaties  involving  unlimited  responsibilities  and  even 
vast  expenditure,  without  the  consent,  nay,  without  the 
knowledge  of  Parliament,  and  this  not  merely  in  sup- 


GOVERNMENT.  173 

port  or  in  development,  but  in  reversal,  of  policy 
already  known  to  and  sanctioned  by  the  nation.  But 
the  assumption  is  that  the  depositories  of  power  will 
all  respect  one  another;  will  evince  a  consciousness 
that  they  are  working  in  a  common  interest  for  a 
common  end ;  that  they  will  be  possessed,  together 
with  not  less  than  an  average  intelligence,  of  not  less 
than  an  average  sense  of  equity  and  of  the  public 
interest  and  rights.  When  these  reasonable  expecta- 
tions fail,  then,  it  must  be  admitted,  the  British  Con- 
stitution will  be  in  danger.  Apart  from  such  contin- 
gencies, the  offspring  only  of  folly  or  of  crime,  this 
Constitution  is  peculiarly  liable  to  subtle  change.  Not 
only  in  the  long  run,  as  man  changes  between  youth 
and  age,  but  also,  like  the  human  body,  with  a  quoti- 
dian life,  a  periodical  recurrence  of  ebbing  and  flowing 
tides.  Its  old  particles  daily  run  to  waste,  and  give 
place  to  new.  What  is  hoped  among  us  is,  that  which 
has  usually  been  found,  that  evils  will  become  palpable 
before  they  have  grown  to  be  intolerable. 

CXXXIV. 

The  modern  English  character  reflects  the  English 
Constitution  in  this,  that  it  abounds  in  paradox;  that 
it  possesses  every  strength,  but  holds  it  tainted  with 
every  weakness  ;  that  it  seems  alternately  both  to  rise 
above  and  to  fall  below  the  standard  of  average  hu- 


174  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

manity;  that  there  is  no  allegation  of  praise  or  blame 
which,  in  some  one  of  the  aspects  of  its  many-sided 
formation,  it  does  not  deserve ;  that  only  in  the  midst 
of  much  default,  and  much  transgression,  the  people 
of  this  United  Kingdom  either  have  heretofore  estab- 
lished, or  will  hereafter  establish,  their  title  to  be 
reckoned  among  the  children  of  men,  for  the  eldest 
born  of  an  imperial  race. 

cxxxv. 

The  students  of  the  future,  in  the  department  of 
political  philosophy,  will  have  much  to  say  in  the  way 
of  comparison  between  American  and  British  institu- 
tions. The  relationship  between  these  two  is  unique 
in  history.  It  is  always  interesting  to  trace  and  to 
compare  Constitutions,  as  it  is  to  compare  languages  : 
especially  in  such  instances  as  those  of  the  Greek 
States  and  the  Italian  Republics,  or  the  diversified 
forms  of  the  feudal  system  in  the  different  countries  of 
Europe.  But  there  is  no  parallel  in  all  the  records  of 
the  world  to  the  case  of  that  prolific  British  mother, 
who  has  sent  forth  her  innumerable  children  over  all  the 
earth  to  be  the  founders  of  half-a-dozen  empires.  She, 
with  her  progeny,  may  almost  claim  to  constitute  a 
kind  of  universal  church  in  polities.  But  among 
these  children,  there  is  one  whose  place  in  the  world's 
eye  and  in  history  is  superlative :  it  is  the  American 


GO  VERNMENT. 


'75 


Republic.  She  is  the  eldest  born.  She  has,  taking 
the  capacity  of  rfer  hand  into  view  as  well  as  its  mere 
measurement,  a  natural  base  for  the  greatest  con- 
tinuous empire  ever  established  by  man.  And  it  may 
be  well  here  to  mention  what  has  not  always  been 
sufficiently  observed,  that  the  distinction  between  con- 
tinuous empire  and  empire  severed  and  dispersed  over 
sea,  is  vital.  The  development  which  the  republic  has 
effected,  has  been  unexampled  in  its  rapidity  and  force. 
While  other  countries  have  doubled,  or  at  most  trebled, 
their  population,  she  has  risen,  during  one  simple  cen- 
tury of  freedom,  in  round  numbers  from  two  millions 
to  forty-five.  As  to  riches,  it  is  reasonable  to  establish 
from  the  decennial  stages  of  the  progress  thus  far 
achieved,  a  series  for  the  future ;  and,  reckoning  upon 
this  basis,  I  suppose  that  the  very  next  census,  in  the 
year  1880,  will  exhibit  her  to  the  world  as  certainly  the 
wealthiest  of  all  the  nations.  The  huge  figure  of  a 
thousand  millions  sterling,  which  may  be  taken  roundly 
as  the  annual  income  of  the  United  Kingdom,  has  been 
reached  at  a  surprising  rate ;  a  rate  which  may  perhaps 
be  best  expressed  by  saying  that,  if  we  could  have 
started  forty  or  fifty  years  ago  from  zero,  at  the  rate  of 
our  recent  annual  increment,  we  should  now  have 
reached  our  present  position.  But  while  we  have  been 
advancing  with  this  portentous  rapidity,  America  is 
passing  by  as  if  in  a  canter.  Yet  even  now  the  work 
of  searching  the  soil  and  the  bowels  of  the  territory, 


176  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

and  opening  out  her  enterprise  throughout  its  vast  ex- 
panse, is  in  its  infancy.  The  England  and  the  America 
of  the  present  are  probably  the  two  strongest  nations 
of  the  world.  But  there  can  hardly  be  a  doubt,  as 
between  the  America  and  the  England  of  the  future, 
that  the  daughter,  at  some  no  very  distant  time,  will, 
whether  fairer  or  less  fair,  be  unquestionably  yet 
stronger  than  the  mother. 

"  O  matre  forti  filia  fortior." 

But  all  this  pompous  detail  of  material  triumphs, 
whether  for  the  one  or  for  the  other,  is  worse  than 
idle,  unless  the  men  of  the  two  countries  shall  remain, 
or  shall  become,  greater  than  the  mere  things  that 
they  produce,  and  shall  know  how  to  regard  those 
things  simply  as  tools  and  materials  for  the  at- 
tainments of  the  highest  purposes  of  their  being. 
Ascending,  then,  from  the  ground  floor  of  material 
industry  towards  the  regions  in  which  these  purposes 
are  to  be  wrought  out,  it  is  for  each  nation  to  consider 
how  far  its  institutions  have  reached  a  state,  in  which 
they  can  contribute  their  maximum  to  the  store  of 
human  happiness  and  excellence. 

And  for  the  political  student  all  over  the  world  it 
will  be  beyond  anything  curious  as  well  as  useful,  to 
examine  with  what  diversities,  as  well  as  what  resem- 
blances of  apparatus,  the  two  greater  branches  of  a 
race  born  to  command  have  been  minded  or  induced, 
or  constrained  to  work  out,  in  their  sea-severed  seats, 


GO  VERNMEN  T.  177 

their    political   destinies    according  to   the  respective 
laws  appointed  for  them. 

CXXXVI. 

In  many  and  the  most  fundamental  respects,  Eng- 
land and  America  still  carry  in  undiminished,  perhaps 
in  increasing,  clearness,  the  notes  of  resemblance  that 
beseem  a  parent  and  a  child.  Both  wish  for  self-gov- 
ernment ;  and  however  grave  the  drawbacks  under 
which  in  one  or  both  it  exists,  the  two  have,  among 
the  great  nations  of  the  world,  made  the  most  effectual 
advances  towards  the  true  aim  of  rational  politics. 

They  are  similarly  associated  in  their  fixed  idea  that 
the  force,  in  which  all  government  takes  effect,  is  to 
be  constantly  backed,  and,  as  it  were,  illuminated,  by 
thought  in  speech  and  writing.  The  ruler  of  St.  Paul's 
time  "bare  the  sword."  Bare  it,  as  the  apostle  says, 
with  a  mission  to  do  right ;  but  he  says  nothing  of 
any  duty,  or  any  custom,  to  show  by  reason  that  he 
was  doing  right.  Our  two  governments,  whatsoever 
they  do,  have  to  give  reasons  for  it ;  not  reasons  which 
will  convince  the  unreasonable,  but  reasons  which  on 
the  whole  will  convince  the  average  mind,  and  carry 
it  unitedly  forwards  in  a  course  of  action,  often,  though 
not  always  wise,  and  carrying  within  itself  provisions, 
where  it  is  unwise,  for  the  correction  of  its  own  unwis- 


1 78  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

dom  before  it  grow  into  an  intolerable  rank  ness.  They 
are  governments,  not  of  force  only,  but  of  persuasion. 
Many  more  are  the  concords,  and  not  less  vital  than 
these  of  the  two  nations,  as  expressed  in  their  institu- 
tions. They  alike  prefer  the  practical  to  the  abstract. 
They  tolerate  opinion,  with  only  a  reserve  on  behalf 
of  decency ;  and  they  desire  to  confine  coercion  to  the 
province  of  action,  and  to  leave  thought,  as  such, 
entirely  free.  They  set  a  high  value  on  liberty  for  its 
own  sake.  They  desire  to  give  full  scope  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  self-reliance  in  the  people,  and  they  deem 
self  help  to  be  immeasureably  superior  to  help  in  any 
other  form ;  to  be  the  only  help,  in  short,  which  ought 
not  to  be  continually,  or  periodically,  put  upon  its 
trial,  and  required  to  make  good  its  title.  They  mis- 
trust and  mislike  the  centralization  of  power;  and 
they  cherish  municipal,  local,  even  parochial  liberties, 
as  nursery  grounds,  not  only  for  the  production  here 
and  there  of  able  men,  but  for  the  general  training 
of  public  virtue  and  independent  spirit.  They  regard 
publicity  as%the  vital  air  of  politics,  through  which 
alone,  in  its  freest  circulation,  opinions  can  be  thrown 
into  common  stock  for  the  good  of  all  and  the  balance 
of  relative  rights  and  claims  can  be  habitually  and 
peaceably  adjusted.  It  would  be  difficult,  in  the  case 
of  any  other  pair  of  nations,  to  present  an  assemblage 
of  traits  at  once  so  common  and  so  distinctive,  as  has 
been  given  in  this  probably  imperfect  enumeration. 


GO  VERNMEN  T.  179 

There  were,  however,  the  strongest  reasons  why 
America  could  not  grow  into  a  reflection  or  repetition 
of  England.  Passing  from  a  narrow  island  to  a  conti- 
nent almost  without  bounds,  the  colonists  at  once  and 
vitally  altered  their  conditions  of  thought,  as  well  as 
of  existence,  in  relation  to  the  most  important  and 
most  operative  of  all  social  facts,  the  possession  of  the 
soil.  In  England  inequality  lies  imbedded  in  the  very 
base  of  the  social  structure ;  in  America  it  is  a  late, 
incidental,  unrecognized  product,  not  of  tradition,  but 
of  industry  and  wealth,  as  they  advance  with  various 
and,  of  necessity,  unequal  steps.  Heredity,  seated  as 
an  idea  in  the  heart's  core  of  Englishmen,  and  sus- 
taining far  more  than  it  is  sustained  by.  those  of  our 
institutions  which  express  it,  was  as  truly  absent  from 
the  intellectual  and  moral  store,  with  which  the  colo- 
nists traversed  the  Atlantic,  as  if  it  had  been  some 
forgotten  article  in  the  bills  of  lading  that  made  up 
their  cargoes.  Equality,  combined  with  liberty,  and 
renewable  at  each  descent  from  one  generation  to 
another,  like  a  lease  with  stipulated  breaks,  was  the 
groundwork  of  their  social  creed. 

CXXXVII. 

If  there  be  those  in  England  who  think  that  Amer- 
ican democracy  means  public  levity  and  intemperance, 
or  a  lack  of  skill  and  sagacity  in  politics,  or  the  ab- 


i8o  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

sence  of  self-command  and  self-denial,  let  them  bear 
in  mind  a  few  of  the  most  salient  and  recent  facts 
of  history  which  may  profitably  be  recommended  to 
their  reflections.  We  emancipated  a  million  of  negroes 
by  peaceful  legislation ;  America  liberated  four  or 
five  millions  by  a  bloody  civil  war;  yet  the  industry 
and  exports  of  the  Southern  States  are  maintained, 
while  those  of  our  negro  colonies  have  dwindled ;  the 
South  enjoys  all  its  franchises,  but  we  have,  proh 
pudor  !  found  no  better  method  of  providing  for  peace 
and  order  in  Jamaica,  the  chief  of  our  islands,  than 
by  the  hard  and  vulgar,  even  where  needful,  expedient 
of  abolishing  entirely  its  representative  institutions. 

The  Civil  War  compelled  the  States,  both  North  and 
South,  to  train  and  embody  a  million  and  a  half  of 
men,  and  to  present  to  view  the  greatest,  instead  of 
the  smallest,  armed  forces  in  the  world.  Here,  there 
was  supposed  to  arise  a  double  danger.  First,  that 
on  a  sudden  cessation  of  the  war,  military  life  and 
habits  could  not  be  shaken  off,  and,  having  become 
rudely  and  widely  predominant,  would  bias  the  country 
towards  an  aggressive  policy,  or,  still  worse,  would  find 
vent  in  predatory  or  revolutionary  operations.  Sec- 
ondly, that  a  military  caste  would  grow  up  with  its 
habits  of  exclusiveness  and  command,  and  would  influ- 
ence the  tone  of  politics  in  a  direction  adverse  to 
republican  freedom.  But  both  apprehensions  proved 
to  be  wholly  imaginary.  The  innumerable  soldiery 


GO  VERNMEN  T.  1 8 1 

was  at  once  dissolved.  Cincinnatus,  no  longer  an 
unique  example,  became  the  commonplace  of  every 
day,  the  type  and  mould  of  a  nation.  The  whole 
enormous  mass  quietly  resumed  the  habits  of  social 
life.  The  generals  of  yesterday  were  the  editors,  the 
secretaries,  and  the  solicitors  of  to-day.  The  just 
jealousy  of  the  State  gave  life  to  the  now  forgotten 
maxim  of  Judge  Blackstone,  who  denounced  as  peri- 
lous the  erection  of  a  separate  profession  of  arms  in 
a  free  country.  The  standing  army,  expanded  by  the 
heat  of  civil  contest  to  gigantic  dimensions,  settled 
down  again  into  the  framework  of  a  miniature  with  the 
returning  temperature  of  civil  life,  and  became  a  power 
well  nigh  invisible,  from  its  minuteness,  amidst  the 
powers  which  sway  the  movements  of  a  society,  ex- 
ceeding forty  millions. 

More  remarkable  still  was  the  financial  sequel  to 
the  great  conflict.  The  internal  taxation  for  Federal 
purposes,  which  before  its  commencement  had  been 
unknown,  was  raised,  in  obedience  to  an  exigency  of 
life  and  death,  so  as  to  exceed  every  present  and  every 
past  example.  It  pursued  and  worried  all  the  trans- 
actions of  life.  The  interest  of  the  American  debt  grew 
to  be  the  highest  in  the  world,  and  the  capital  touched 
five  hundred  and  sixty  millions  sterling.  Here  was 
provided  for  the  faith  and  patience  of  the  people  a 
touchstone  of  extreme  severity. 

In  England,  at  the  close  of   the   great    French  war, 


182    '  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

the  propertied  classes  who  were  supreme  in  Parlia- 
ment, at  once  rebelled  against  the  Tory  Government, 
and  refused  to  prolong  the  Income  Tax  even  for  a 
single  year.  We  talked  big,  both  then  and  now,  about 
the  payment  of  our  National  Debt ;  but  sixty-three 
years  have  since  elapsed,  all  of  them  except  two,  called 
years  of  peace,  and  we  have  reduced  the  huge  total 
by  about  one-ninth ;  that  is  to  say,  by  little  over  one 
hundred  millions,  or  scarcely  more  than  one  million 
and  a  half  a  year.  This  is  the  conduct  of  a  State 
elaborately  digested  into  orders  and  degrees,  famed 
for  wisdom  and  forethought,  and  consolidated  by  a  long 
experience.  But  America  continued  not  long  to  bear, 
on  her  unaccustomed  and  still  smarting  shoulders,  the 
burden  of  the  war  taxation.  In  twelve  years  she  has 
reduced  her  debt  by  one  hundred  and  fifty-eight  mil- 
lions sterling,  or  at  the  rate  of  thirteen  millions  for 
every  year.  In  each  twelve  months  she  had  done 
what  we  did  in  eight  years ;  her  self-command,  self- 
denial,  and  wise  forethought  for  the  future  have  been, 
to  say  the  least,  eight-fold  ours.  These  are  facts  which 
redound  greatly  to  her  honor ;  and  the  historian  will 
record  with  surprise  that  an  enfranchised  nation  toler- 
ated burdens  which  in  England  a  selected  class,  pos- 
sessed of  the  representation,  did  not  dare  to  face,  and 
that  the  most  unmitigated  democracy  known  to  the 
annals  of  the  world  resolutely  reduced  at  its  own  cost 
prospective  liabilities  of  the  State,  which  the  aristo- 


BELIEF.  183 

cratic,  and  plutocratic,  and  monarchical  government 
of  the  United  Kingdom  has  been  contented  ignobly 
to  hand  over  to  posterity.  And  such  facts  should  be 
told  out.  It  is  our  fashion  so  to  tell  them,  against  as 
well  as  for  ourselves ;  'and  the  record  of  them  may 
some  day  be  among  the  means  of  stirring  us  up 
to  a  policy  more  worthy  of  the  name  and  fame  of 
England. 

CXXXVIII. 

As  in  wines,  it  is  one  question  what  mode  of  compo- 
sition will  produce  a  commodity  drinkable  in  the 
country  of  origin,  and  what  further  provision  may  be 
requisite  in  order  that  the  product,  may  bear  a  sea 
voyage  without  turning  into  vinegar  so,  in  the  matter  of 
belief,  select  individuals  may  subsist  on  a  poor,  thin, 
sodden  and  attenuated  diet,  which  would  simply  be 
death  to  the  multitude.  Theories,  then,  may  suffice  for 
the  moral  wants  of  a  few  intellectual  and  cultivated 
men,  which  cannot  be  propagated,  and  cannot  be  trans- 
mitted ;  which  cannot  bear  the  wear  and  tear  of  constant 
re-delivery;  which  cannot  meet  the  countless  and  ever- 
shifting  exigencies  of  our  nature  taken  at  large  ;  which 
cannot  do  the  rough  work  of  the  world.  The  colors, 
that  will  endure  through  the  term  of  a  butterfly's  exis- 
tence, would  not  avail  to  carry  the  works  of  Titian 
down  from  generation  to  generation  and  century  to 
century.  Think  of  twelve  agnostics,  or  twelve  pan  the- 


1 84  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

ists,  or  twelve  materialists  setting   out  from    modern 
Jerusalem  to  do  the  work  of  the  twelve  apostles! 


Let  it  not  be  supposed  that  principles  and  opinions 
always  go  together,  any  more  than  sons  are  always 
like  their  parents.  Principles  are  indeed,  the  fathers 
of  opinions  ;  and  they  will  ultimately  be  able  to  assert 
the  lineaments  of  the  descendants.  Men,  individually 
and  in  series,  commonly  know  their  own  opinions,  but 
are  often  ignorant  of  their  own  principles.  Yet  in  the 
long  run  it  is  the  principles  that  govern ;  and  the 
opinions  must  go  to  the  wall. 

But  this  is  a  work  of  time ;  in  many  cases  of  much 
time.     With  some  men,  nothing  less  than  life  suffices 
.  for  it;  and  with  some,  life  itself  is  not  sufficient. 

CXXXIX. 

Inquiry  is  a  road  to  truth,  and  authority  is  a  road 
to  truth.  Identical  in  aim,  diverse  in  means  and  in 
effect,  but  both  resting  on  the  same  basis.  Inquiry  is 
the  more  normal,  the  more  excellent  way;  but  penury 
of  time  and  faculty  absolutely  precludes  the  human 
being  from  obtaining,  by  this  truly  royal  road,  a  suffi- 
cient stock  of  knowledge  for  the  necessary  action  of 
life  ;  and  authority  is  the  humble  but  useful  substitute. 


BELIEF.  185 

Nor  is  the  distinction  between  them  in  any  sense  one 
of  antagonism ;  on  the  contrary,  there  is,  besides  the 
oneness  of  their  ultimate  sanction,  this  notable  affinity 
betwixt  them  :  the  knowledge,  referable  to  action,  which 
we  obtain  by  inquiry,  as  altogether  or  commonly  proba- 
ble knowledge  ;  and  authority  is  probable  knowledge 
too.  Of  course  both  the  authority  and  the  inquiry 
must  be  regulated  by  the  laws  that  belong  to  their 
respective  kinds.  The  rule  for  us,  in  whatever  case, 
is  one :  to  make  the  best  practicable  use  of  the  best 
available  means  for  thinking  truly  and  acting  rightly, 
using  inquiry  where  we  can,  accepting  authority  where 
we  cannot  effectually  use  inquiry. 

CXL. 

Belief  in  God  surely  implies  much  more  than  that  he 
is  superhuman  and  imperceptible.  It  seems  to  involve, 
as  a  general  rule,  the  following  particulars  : 

First,  that  he  is  conceived  of  as  possessing  in  him- 
self all  attributes  whatsoever  which  conduce  to  excel- 
lence, and  these  in  a  degree  indefinitely  beyond  the 
power  of  the  human  mind  to  measure. 

Second,  that  over  and  above  what  he  is  in  himself, 
he  is  conceived  of  as  standing  in  certain  relations  to 
us  ;  as  carrying  on  a  moral  government  of  the  world. 
He  is  held  to  prescribe  and  favor  what  is  right ;  to 
forbid  and  regard  with  displeasure  what  is  wrong  ;  and 


i86  THE  MIGHT  OF  EIGHT. 

to  dispose  the  course  of  events  in  such  a  way  that,  in 
general,  and  upon  the  whole,  there  is  a  tendency  of 
virtue  to  bring  satisfaction  and  happiness,  and  of  vice 
to  entail  the  reverse  of  these,  even  when  appearances, 
and  external  advantages,  might  not  convey  such  an 
indication. 

Third,  the  same  wide  consent  of  mankind,  which 
sustains  belief  in  a  God,  and  invests  him  with  a  cer- 
tain character,  has  everywhere  perceptibly,  though 
variably  and  sometimes  with  a  great  vagueness  of  out- 
line, carried  the  sphere  of  the  moral  government  which 
it  assigns  to  him  beyond  the  limits  of  the  visible  world. 
In  that  larger  region,  though  it  lie  beyond  the  scope 
of  our  present  narrow  view,  the  belief  of  mankind  has 
been,  that  the  laws  of  this  moral  government  would 
be  more  clearly  developed,  and  the  normal  relation 
between  good  and  evil,  and  between  their  respective 
consequences,  fully  established. 

Fourth,  therefore,  along  with  belief  in  a  God,  we 
have  to  register  the  acknowledgment  of  another  truth, 
the  doctrine  of  a  future  state  of  man,  which  has  had 
a  not  less  ample  acceptance  in  all  the  quarters  from 
whence  the  elements  of  authority  can  be  drawn  ;  and 
has  indeed,  in  the  darkest  periods  and  places  of  re- 
ligion, been  found  difficult  to  eradicate,  even  when  the 
Divine  Idea  had  been  so  broken  up  and  degraded,  as 
to  seem  divested  of  all  its  most  splendid  attributes. 


BELIEF.  13; 

CXLI. 

The  servant  in  the  parable  who  wrapped  his  talent 
in  a  napkin,  and  thus  (as  it  were)  gave  it  away  from 
his  own  use,  exercised  his  private  judgment  just  as 
much  as  the  fellow-servant  who  employed  it  constantly 
and  steadily,  and  obtained  large  increase  from  it.  He 
used  his  private  judgment  as  much,  only  he  used  it  in 
a  wrong  direction  ;  just  as  if  a  free  citizen  of  England 
were  to  repair  to  a  country  where  slavery  prevails,  and 
there  to  sell  himself  into  bondage. 

CXLI  I. 

Believers  in  Christ,  casting  anchor,  so  to  speak,  in 
an  older  dispensation,  have  uniformly  acknowledged 
that  God  had"  at  sundry  times  and  in  divers  manners  " 
made  himself  known  to  the  rational  mind  of  man  by 
a  special  communication  or  inspiration,  over  and  above 
that  knowledge  of  himself  which  he  had  imparted  by 
the  books  of  nature  and  of  life  or  experience.  And 
this  finally  in  the  gospel.  They  therefore  have  held 
themselves  to  be  in  possession  of  a  special  treasure 
of  divine  knowledge,  communicated  in  a  manner  which 
carried  with  it  a  peculiar  certainty ;  and  such  a  belief, 
called  the  belief  in  inspiration,  and  pervading  the 
whole  of  Christendom  from  the  very  first,  is  of  itself 


i88  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

a  material  amplification  of  the  idea  conveyed  by  the 
mere  name  of  Christianity. 

CLXIII. 

The  human  mind  is  accustomed  to  play  tricks  with 
itself  in  every  form ;  and  one  of  the  forms  in  which 
it  most  frequently  resorts  to  this  operation,  is  when  it 
attenuates  the  labor  of  thought,  and  evades  the  respon- 
sibility of  definite  decision,  by  the  adoption  of  a  gen- 
eral word  that  we  purposely  keep  undefined  to  our 
own  consciousness.  So  men  admire  the  British  Con- 
stitution without  knowing  or  inquiring  what  it  is,  and 
profess  Christianity  but  decline  to  say  or  think  what 
it  means.  In  such  cases  the  general  word,  instead 
of  indicating,  like  the  title  of  an  author's  works,  a 
multitude  of  particulars,  becomes  a  blind,  which,  on  the 
one  hand,  excludes  knowledge,  and,  on  the  other, 
leaves  us  imbued  with  the  notion  that  we  possess  it. 

And  my  contention  is  that  whatever  be  the  momen- 
tary fashion  of  the  day  in  which  we  live,  that  same 
tradition  and  testimony  of  the  ages,  which  commends 
Christianity  to  us,  has  not  been  a  chimera  or  a  cha- 
meleon, but  has  had  from  the  first,  up  to  a  certain 
point,  of  development,  one  substantially  definite  mean- 
ing for  the  word,  a  meaning  of  mental  as  well  as  moral 
significance ;  and  has,  as  a  matter  of  history,  expressed 
this  meaning  in  the  creeds.  This  Christianity  has 


CONSISTENCY.  189 

shed  off  from  it,  on  this  side  and  on  that,  after  debate 
and  scrutiny,  and  furthermore  after  doubt  and  even 
sometimes  convulsion,  all  the  conceptions  irreconcil- 
ably hostile  to  its  own  essence,  by  a  standing  provision 
as  normal  as  are  the  reparatory  processes  of  material 
nature ;  and  has  been  handed  on  continuously  in 
uniformity  of  life,  though  not,  it  may  be,  in  uniformity 
of  health.  So  that  reason  requires  us,  when  we  speak 
of  Christianity,  to  expound  the  phrase  agreeably  to 
history,  if  we  mean  to  claim  on  its  behalf,  the  authority 
of  civilized  man,  since  it  is  to  the  expounded  phrase, 
and  not  the  bare  shell,  that  that  authority  attaches. 
It  is  in  this  sense  what  the  visible  church  also 
claims  to  be,  a  city  set  on  a  .hill ;  not,  indeed,  a  city 
within  walls  that  can  neither  grow  nor  dwindle,  but 
yet  a  city  widely  spread,  with  a  fixed  heart  and  centre, 
if  with  a  fluctuating  outline  ;  a  mass  alike  unchange- 
able ;  perceptible,  and  also  determinate,  not  absolutely 
or  mathematically  ;  but  in  a  degree  sufficient  for  its 
providential  purpose  in  the  education  of  mankind. 

CXLIV. 

Who  is  to  judge  between  the  man  that  is  consistent 
in  developing  error,  and  the  man  whose  inconsistency 
preserves  to  him  fragments  of  truth,  which  by  more  of 
logical  precision  and  boldness  he  would  lose. 


ipo  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

CXLV. 

When  the  Austrians  and  Montenegrins  were  fighting 
against  the  Turks,  allies  of  the  French,  on  a  certain 
occasion  a  handful  of  men  had  to  fly  for  their  lives. 
Two  Austrians  were  among  them,  of  whom  one  had 
the  misfortune  to  be  what  is  called  stout.  When  the 

• 

party  had  run  some  way,  he  showed  signs  of  extreme 
distress,  and  said  he  would  throw  himself  on  the 
ground  and  take  his  chance. 

"Very  well,"  said  the  fellow  fugitive,  who  was  a 
Mt  ntenegrin,  "  do  not  lose  any  time,  say  your  prayers, 
make  the  sign  of  the  cross,  and  I  will  then  cut  off  your 
head  for  you." 

As  might  he  expected,  this  was  not  at  all  the  view  of 
the  Austrian  in  his  proposal ;  and  the  friendly  offer  had 
such  an  effect  upon  him,  that  he  resumed  the  race,  and 
reached  a  place  of  safety. 

CXLVI. 

Is  there  not  among  civilized  men  a  solid  and 
established  (though  it  may  be  limited)  concurrence 
of  judgment  upon  many  questions  for  (example, 
of  human  character;  upon  the  characters  say,  of 
Phocion,  of  Catiline,  of  Saint  Louis,  of  Washington, 
of  Wellington,  of  Mrs.  Fry  ?  Is  that  argument  worth- 
less or  visionary  ?  No ;  yet  is  there  any  one  of  us 


KNOWLEDGE.  191 

so  presumptuous,  so  irrational,  as  to  say  that  he  has 
ever  really  comprehended  any  single  human  character? 
Can  we  deal  with  its  subtle  ingredients  as  the  scales 
of  Zeus  weighed  the  contending  fates  of  Hector  and 
Achilles,  and  determine  what  shall  descend  and  what 
shall  kick  the  beam  ?  I  will  go  farther  and  say,  can 
we  completely  judge  any  simple  human  action  ?  Nay, 
passing  into  the  region  of  nature  with  its  boasted 
certainty,  do  we  comprehend  the  growth  of  a  single 
blade  of  grass  in  a  single  field  on  the  surface  of  the 
earth  ? 

Yet  one  step  further.  The  mathematician  has  a  for- 
mula which  asserts  that  nothing  divided  by  nothing, 
or  rather  which  has  zero  for  numerator  and  zero  for 
denominator  (°)  is  equal  to  anything.  He  abides  by 
this  formula  :  he  finds  it  verified  by  results.  But  may 
it  not  be  permitted  us  to  doubt  whether,  in  the  strict 
sense  of  the  term,  he  "  comprehends  "  it :  whether  it  does 
not  descend  into  the  region  of  the  infinitesimal  farther 
than  human  wit  can  follow  it  ?  The  truth  is,  as  far 
as  experience  and  reflection  have  enabled  me  to  grasp 
it,  that  small  indeed  is  the  number  of  subjects  or 
ideas  which,  in  the  sense  of  absolute  comprehension, 
mankind  have  ever  comprehended  ;  that  what  is  given 
to  us,  as  a  general  rule,  is  comprehension  in  degree  — 
comprehension  by  contact  with  a  subject  at  certain 
of  its  points,  which  in  a  manner  give  the  outline,  as 
the  naturalist  constructs  the  creature  from  the  bone — • 


1 92  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

comprehension  not  absolute,  but  relative  to  our  state 
and  wants ;  limited  and  thus  teaching  humility,  but 
adequate  to  establish  reasonable  conclusions,  and  to 
work  out  those  laws  of  probable  evidence  which,  sus- 
tained by  our  experience  of  their  operation,  fit  it  to 
be  the  guide  of  life.  In  this,  the  old  Christian  reading 
of  the  laws  of  knowledge,  our  intellectual  discipline  is 
everywhere  intertwined  with  moral  teaching,  and  the 
employments  farthest  from  the  direct  subject-matter 
of  religion  minister  to  its  highest  purposes,  like  the 
Queen  of  the  South  bringing  her  choicest  gifts  to  the 
elect  King  of  the  people  of  God. 

CXLVII. 

There  are  sciences  in  which  light  is  entirely  with  the 
few  whom  we  call  experts ;  for  example,  pure  mathe- 
matics, and  I  am  disposed  to  add,  philology.  There 
are  sciences  in  which  a  little  light  is  given  to  all,  by 
all,  meaning  always  all  such  as  are  not  without  good 
sense :  as  such  in  the  material  order,  I  might  name 
medicine  ;  still  more,  when  we  pass  out  of  the  material 
order,  in  the  three  great  branches  of  politics,  morals 
and  religion.  In  these  branches  of  knowledge  it  is 
not  possible  to  lay  down  a  fast  and  clear  line  between 
experts  and  non-experts,  more  than  between  day  and 
night.  With  mathematicians  or  philologists  we  are 
slow  to  interfere,  but  with  those  who  teach  in  politics, 


KNO  W LEDGE.  193 

in  morals,  or  in  religion,  we  interfere  very  freely.  In 
these  departments  especially  it  is  that  ignorant  self- 
assertion  prevails,  but  in  these  also,  it  is  that  the  most 
fatal  dangers  attend  upon  an  invasion  of  just  liberty; 
and,  as  is  common  in  human  affairs,  that  which  is  in 
itself  an  excess  counteracts  or  neutralizes  another  and 
opposite  excess,  yet  more  injurious. 

CXLVIII. 

The  non-expert  of  average  qualities  in  modern  Chris- 
tendom, has  a  general  knowledge  of  the  subject-matter 
in  politics,  morals  and  religion,  not  in  the  scientific 
forms,  but  yet  in  the  elementary  notions  which  those 
scientific  forms  are  intended  to  methodize,  conserve, 
develop,  and  apply. 

And  woe  were  it  to  him,  if  he  were  not  thus  far  at 
least  equipped.  For  he  has  come  into  a  world  where 
he  finds  his  life  conditioned  by  the  family  and  the 
State,  by  the  Bible  and  the  Christian  Church  ;  which 
touch  him  at  a  thousand  points,  and  take  a  large  share 
in  the  government  of  his  life.  As  food  and  liquids 
are  a  necessity  for  all,  nature  provides  all  with  some 
knowledge  how  to  eat  and  drink.  As  society,  personal 
duty,  and  religion  make  urgent  demands  on  him,  some 
of  which  cannot  be  rejected,  while  the  rest  are  not 
always  easy  to  reject,  nature  does  not  leave  him 
wholly  destitute  of  the  primary  instruments  for  hand- 


194  THE  MIGHT  OF   RIGHT. 

ling  these  subjects  in  the  practical  forms  suited  to  his 
condition,  and  he  is  thus  placed  in  more  or  less  of 
possible  relation  to  their  more  developed  aspects. 
Such  knowledge  as  he  has  of  his  own  disposes  and 
helps  him  to  recognize  authority,  to  recognize  an 
authority  that  proceeds  both  from  experts  and  from 
the  race ;  for  few  will  assert  that  St.  Augustine  wrote 
nonsense  when  he  wrote  the  remarkable  though  inde- 
terminate words :  securus  judicat  orbis  terrarum. 

•CXLIX. 

He  who  argues  against  the  Hedonist,  that  there  is 
such  a  thing  discerned  or  discernible  by  men  as  good 
apart  from  pleasure,  asserts  nothing  for  himself  which 
he  does  not  assert  for  humanity  at  large.  All  or  most 
faculties  may  indeed  enlarge,  multiply,  and  vary  their 
powers  by  vigorous  and  judicious  exercise  ;  or  may 
stunt  and  finally  lose  them  by  disuse.  But  the  starting- 
point  is  the  same,  if  the  goal  is  not,  and  the  race  is 
run  along  level  ground  on  even  terms.  By  intuition 
I  only  mean  mental  sight,  the  faculty  common  to  us 
all.  I  do  not  ask  how  far  it  is  an  original  power,  or 
how  far  it  is  one  trained  or  reached  by  the  exercise 
of  other  powers.  How  we  know  God,  this  is  hardly 
the  place  to  inquire.  But  it  may  be  the  place  to  say 
I  cannot  assert  any  method  of  knowing  him  otherwise 
than  by  operations  in  strict  conformity  with  the  general 


KNOWLEDGE.  195 

laws  of  our  nature.  I  agree  with  the  deceased  Mr. 
Dalgairus,  "that  my  knowledge  of  God  is  as  real 
as  my  knowledge  of  man  ; "  and  bold,  or  more  than 
bold  is  he  who  affirms  that  his  knowledge  of  man  is 
limited  to  what  his  senses  can  discern  in  man. 


CL. 


In  every  religious  body  without  exception,  there 
forms  itself  a  stalactite,  so  to  speak,  of  special  tradi- 
tion j  an  atmosphere,  in  which  its  members  habitually 
live  and  breathe,  and  according  to  which  all  their 
ideas  arrange  and  shape  themselves.  In  every  case 
this  tradition  lapses  and  slides  far  away  from  the 
truth  of  history  For  it  is  not  formed  upon  facts  alone, 
but  upon  passions,  sympathies,  prepossessions  :  it  is 
the  offspring  of  man's  promiscuous  nature,  and  not 
only  of  the  faculties  given  him  for  searching  out  the 
truth ;  and  it  is  matter  of  much  difficulty,  even  where 
no  authoritative  inhibition  intervenes,  to  get  out  of 
the  mist  and  the  dusk  which  this  tradition  sheds 
around  us,  and  to  look  at  the  face  of  the  things 
as  they  are  in  themselves,  and '  after  they  have  been 
stripped  of  their  spurious  integument 

CLI. 

There  is   excess   as   well   as   defect  in  the   use   of 


1 96  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

authority ;  and  of  this  excess  we  are  guilty  when  we 
suffer  the  love  of  knowledge  to  grow  cold,  when  we 
cease  to  court  the  genial  warmth  imparted  by  a  real 
basking  in  the  sun  of  truth,  and  when  we  are  satisfied 
with  a  lazy,  servile  acquiescence  in  the  opinions  of 
other  men.  The  proper  function  of  authority  is  to 

* 

enlarge,  not  to  contract,  our  horizon.  It  is  the  func- 
tion of  a  telescope,  which  enables  us  to  see  what  we 
could  not  see  at  all ;  but  what,  if  we  could  see  it 
with  the  naked  eye,  we  should,  I  suppose,  see  better. 

CLII. 

Authority  is  not  an  ideal  or  normal,  but  a  practical 
or  working,  standard.  It  may  be  thought,  in  the  case 
of  a  being  whose  nature  is  based  on  intelligence  and 
freedom,  to  present  an  anomaly ;  it  certainly  presents 
a  limitation.  But  not  (in  mathematical  phrase)  a  con- 
stant limitation.  There  is  no  point,  at  which  we  may 
not  throw  back  the  boundary,  and  enlarge  the  sphere 
of  direct  knowledge,  and  of  conviction  and  action 
founded  thereupon.  There  is  no  point,  at  which  we 
ought  not  to  so  throw  it  back,  according  to  our  means 
and  opportunities.  Life  should  be  spent  in  a  strong 
continuous  effort  to  improve  the  apparatus  for  the 
guidance  of  life,  both  in  thought  and  action.  We  must 
ever  be  trying  to  know  more  and  more  what  are  the 
things  to  be  believed  and  done.  In  pursuing  the  end, 


KNOWLEDGE.  197 

the  exercise  of  free  intelligent  thought  may,  indeed, 
greatly  enlarge  the  sphere  of  authority.  For  example, 
in  learning  facts  of  physical  science,  as  when  we  in- 
quire about  the  results  obtained  by  the  "  Challenger ;  " 
or  in  becoming  more  largely  acquainted  with  the  laws 
of  health  from  the  mouth  of  a  judicious  physician. 
This  duty,  however,"  is  covered  and  overlapped  by 
another  duty :  the  duty  of  constantly  endeavoring, 
within  the  limit  of  our  means,  to  corroborate  or  test 
authority  by  inquiry,  which  finally  means  to  supplant 
trust  by  knowledge.  And  this  duty  is  supreme.  But 
it  is  insidiously  dogged  by  the  danger  of  mistaking  the 
limit  of  our  means,  and  thus  supplanting  trust,  not  by 
our  knowledge,  but  by  our  ignorance  dressed  out  in 
the  garb  of  knowledge. 

CLIII. 

The  human  mind  is  capable  of  taking  a  more  close 
and  accurate  survey  of  a  limited  and  homogeneous 
subject-matter  than  when  it  embraces  at  once  a  vast 
circumference,  a  magazine  of  omne  scibile. 

CLIV. 

In  the  contact  between  the  mind  of  man  and  such 
a  subject  as  the  being  of  God,  the  best  men  are  not 
like  the  poppies  in  Herodotus,  towering  far  above  the 


198  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

grain ;  they  are  but  as  blades  of  grass,  of  which  no 
one  is  greatly  taller  than  his  nearest  fellows.  The  dif- 
ferent elements  of  competency,  are,  in  different  subjects, 
differently  combined ;  and  their  distribution  often- 
times corroborates  their  force.  There  is  here,  too,  a 
competency  of  the  race  as  well  as  of  the  individual : 
the  greatest  can  know  but  little,  the  smallest  may  know 
something,  and  perhaps  in  a  different  way. 

CLV. 

If  two  men  meet  in  argument,  one  of  them  desirous 
to  measure  fully  and  accurately  the  points  of  strength 
and  weakness  on  both  sides,  but  especially  the  points 
of  weakness  on  his  own,  and  the  other  with  an  equal 
honesty  of  intention,  but  with  a  mental  habit  formed 
and  hardened  under  influences  which  forbid  not  only 
any  condemnation  but  even  any  critical  scrutiny  of 
the  system  he  belongs  to,  they  can  have  no  common 
measure  of  truth,  no  means  of  comprehending  one 
another.  They  are  like  men,  neither  of  whom  under- 
stands the  language  spoken  by  his  adversary. 

CLVI. 

A  general  revolt  against  authority,  even  in  matters 
of  opinion,  is  a  childish  or  anile  superstition,  not  to 
be  excused  by  the  pretext  that  it  is  only  due  to  the 


KNO  W 'LEDGE.  199 

love  of  freedom  cherished  in  excess.  The  love  of 
freedom  is  an  essential  principle  of  healthy  human 
action,  but  is  only  one  of  its  essential  principles.  Such 
a  superstition,  due  only  to  excess  in  the  love  of  free- 
dom, may  remind  us  that  we  should  be  burned  to 
cinders  were  the  earth  capable  of  imitating  its  way- 
ward denizens,  and  indulging  itself  only  in  an  excess 
of  the  centripetal  force.  We  may  indeed  allow  that, 
when  personal  inquiry  has  been  thorough,  unbiased, 
and  entire,  it  seems  a  violation  of  natural  law  to  say 
that  the  inquirer  should  put  it  aside  in  deference  to 
others,  even  of  presumably  superior  qualification.  Here 
there  enters  into  the  case  a  kind  of  sacred  right  of 
insurrection,  essential  as  a  condition  of  human  prog- 
ress. But  the  number  of  the  cases  in  which  a  man 
can  be  sure  that  his  own  inquiry  fulfills  these  condi- 
tions is  comparatively  insignificant.  Whenever  it  falls 
short  of  fulfilling  them,  what  may  be  called  the  sub- 
jective speciality  of  duty  disappears ;  there  remains 
only  the  paramount  law  of  allegiance  to  objective 
truth,  and  that  law,  commonly  dealing  with  probable 
evidence,  binds  us  to  take  not  that  evidence  with 
which  we  ourselves  have  most  to  do,  but  that  which, 
whether  our  own  or  not,  offers  the  smallest  among 
the  several  likelihoods  of  error.  The  common  cases 
of  opposition  lie  not  between  authority  and  reasonable 
conviction,  but  between  authority  and  fancy ;  authority 
and  lame,  or  weak,  or  hasty,  or  shallow,  processes  oE 


200  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

the  mind ;    authority  and   sheer  self-conceit,  or  head 
strong  or  indolent  self-love. 

cLvn. 

Materialism  finds  in  matter  the  base  and  source  of 
all  that  is.  Perhaps  this  is  properly  and  strictly  a 
doctrine  of  philosophy  rather  than  one  touching  reli- 
gion. I  am  too  slightly  possessed  of  the  real  laws  and 
limits  of  the  conception  to  speak  with,  confidence  ;  but 
I  do  not  at  present  see  the  answer  to  the  following 
proposition.  In  our  actual  world  we  have  presented 
to  us  objects  and  powers  including  what  is  wholly  differ- 
ent in  fashion  and  operation  from  matter.  If,  then, 
upon  a  materialistic  basis,  we  can  have  "  Hamlet " 
and  "Macbeth,"  the  works  of  Aristotle,  the  Divina 
Commedia,  the  Imitation  of  Christ,  the  Gospels  and 
Epistles,  there  may  in  the  unseen  world  possibly 
be  reared,  on  this  same  basis,  all  that  theology  has 
taught  us.  And  thus  materialism  would  join  hands 
with  orthodoxy.  Such  may  be  the  scheme  from  one 
point  of  view.  In  common  use,  and  in  what  is  perhaps 
the  most  consistent  use,  I  am  afraid  the  phrase  is 
appropriated  by  those  who  desire  to  express,  in  a 
form  the  most  crude  and  crass,  the  exclusion  of  deity 
from  the  world  and  the  mind  of  man,  and  from  the 
government  of  his  life ;  and  the  eventual  descent  into 
matter  of  all  that  now  idly  seems  to  our  eyes  to  be 


PATRIOTISM.  201 

above  it.  Such  a  materialism  is  the  special  danger 
of  comfortable  and  money-making  times.  The  multi- 
plication of  the  appliances  of  material  and  worldly 
life,  and  the  increased  command  of  them  through  the 
ever-mounting  aggregate  of  wealth  in  the  favored  sec- 
tions of  society,  silently  but  steadily  tend  to  enfeeble 
in  our  minds  the  sense  of  dependence,  and  to  efface 
the  kindred  sense  of  sin.  On  the  other  hand  they 
are  as  steadily  increasing  the  avenues  of  desire,  and 
enhancing  the  absorbing  effect  of  enjoyment.  With 
this  comes  the  deadening  of  the  higher  conception 
of  existence,  and  the  disposition  to  accept  the  lower, 
nay,  the  lowest,  one. 

CLVIII. 

Of  the  whole  sum  of  human  life,  no  small  part  is 
that  which  consists  of  a  man's  relations  to  his  country, 
and  his  feelings  concerning  it. 

CLIX. 

The  great  problem  which  day  and  night,  in  its 
innumerable  forms,  must  haunt  the  reflections  of  every 
statesman  both  in  England  and  elsewhere,  is  how  to 
harmonize  the  old  with  the  new  conditions  of  society, 
and  to  mitigate  the  increasing  stress  of  time  and 


202  THE  MIGHT  OF   RIGHT. 

change  upon  what  remains  of  the  ancient  and  vener- 
able fabric  of  the  traditional  civilization  of  Europe. 

CLX. 

The  principle  of  conservation  and  the  principle  of 
progress  are  both  sound  in  themselves ;  they  have  ever 
existed  and  must  ever  exist  together  in  European 
society,  in  qualified  opposition,  but  in  vital  harmony 
and  concurrence ;  and  for  each  of  those  principles  it  is 
a  matter  of  deep  and  essential  concern,  that  iniquities 
committed  under  the  shelter  of  its  name  should  be 
stripped  of  that  shelter.  Most  of  all  is  this  the  case 
where  iniquity,  towering  on  high,  usurps  the  name  and 
authority  of  that  heaven  to  which  it  lifts  its  head,  and 
wears  the  double  mask  of  Order  and  of  Religion. 

CLXI. 

As  we  follow  the  course  of  history,  we  find  that  un- 
wise concession  has  been  the  parent  of  many  evils. 
But  unwise  resistance  is  answerable  for  many  more ; 
nay,  it  is  too  frequently  the  primary  source  of  the 
mischief  ostensibly  arising  from  the  opposite  policy, 
because  it  is  commonly  unwise  resistance  which  so 
dams  up  the  stream  and  accumulates  the  waters  that 
when  the  day  of  their  bursting  comes,  they  are  abso- 
lutely ungovernable. 


PATRIOTISM.  203 

CLXII. 

The  publicist  is  one,  i£  we  rightly  comprehend  the 
phrase,  who  treats  of  public  events  and  interests,  not 
as  isolated  facts,  but  according  to  the  principles  they 
involve  and  the  sources  from  which  they  spring,  their 
true  place  in  history,  and  their  office  and  share  in 
working  out  their  greater  problems  of  the  destiny  of 
our  race. 

CLXIII. 

Even  the  sense  of  duty  to  one's  country  cannot  have 
that  moral  completeness  which  is  necessary  for  the 
entire  development  of  human  energies,  unless  the 
country,  which  commands  the  services  of  her  children, 
has  herself  obeyed  the  higher  laws  of  public  right 

CLXIV. 

Nothing  can  compensate  a  people  for  the  loss  of 
what  we  may  term  civic  individuality.  Without  it,  the 
European  type  becomes  politically  debased  to  the 
Mahometan  and  Oriental  model. 

CLXV. 

It  is  a  fatal  condition  for  a  people,  when  its  rulers 
descend  from  their  high  position  to  influence  its  pas- 


204  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

sions  and  to  trade  upon  its  besetting  and  traditional 
infirmities;  and  when  in  the  dynastic  controversies 
which  sway  the  land,  the  aim  of  each  party  seems  to  be 
to  stir  the  national  vain-glory  to  fever  heat.  Of  this 
mischief  the  Franco-German  war  afforded  a  painful 
and  egregious  instance. 

CLXVI. 

It  is  certain  that  a  new  law  of  nations  is  gradually 
taking  hold  of  the  mind,  and  coming  to  sway  the 
practice,  of  the  world;  a  law  which  recognizes  indepen- 
dence, which  frowns  upon  aggression,  which  favors  the 
pacific,  not  the  bloody  settlement  of  disputes,  which 
aims  at  permanent  and  not  temporary  adjustments ; 
above  all,  which  recognizes,  as  a  tribunal  of  paramount 
authority,  the  general  judgment  of  civilized  mankind. 
It  is  hard  for  all  nations  to  go  astray.  Their  ecumen- 
ical council  sits  above  the  partial  passions  of  those  who 
are  misled  by  interest,  and  disturbed  by  quarrel.  The 
greatest  triumph  of  our  time,  a  triumph  in  a  region 
loftier  than  that  of  electricity  and  steam,  will  be  the 
enthronement  of  this  idea  of  Public  Right,  as  the 
governing  idea  of  European  policy;  as  the  common 
and  precious  inheritance  of  all  lands,  but  superior  to 
the  passing  opinion  of  any.  The  foremost  among  the 
nations  will  be  that  one,  which  by  its  conduct  shall 


PATRlOTISHf.  205 

gradually  engender  in  the  mind  of  the  others  a  fixed 
belief  that  it  is  just. 

CLXVII. 

Finlay  says  with  truth,  that  the  Revolution  of  Greece 
was  the  people's  revolution.  They  exhibited  a  tenacity 
and  valor,  not  less  than  that  of  the  American  colonists 
in  their  famous  revolt,  which  some  despotic  sovereigns 
showed  themselves  very  ready  to  assist.  We  need  not 
resent  that  assistance.  It  brought  to  a  sharper  and 
speedier  crisis  a  war,  which  would  otherwise  have  been 
interminable,  between  the  two  most  tenacious  and  self- 
reliant  nations  in  the  world.  The  same  service  was 
done  to  Turkey  by  the  Three  Powers ;  and  from  higher 
nations.  Their  abstinence  would  not  have  replaced 
the  Sultan  in  a  real  sovereignty.  Fortresses  taken, 
armies  discomfited,  would  have  seemed  to  be,  but 
would  not  have  been  the  end.  The  hill,  the  forest,  and 
the  blue  sea  would  have  given  refuge  to  their  hardy 
children ;  and  the  contest  would  have  been  dispersedly 
but  resolutely  maintained  by  a  race,  to  whom  as  yet 
except  in  the  Black  Mountains,  no  equals  in  valor  have 
appeared  among  the  enslaved  populations  of  the  East. 

But  if  this  was  a  notable  resemblance,  there  was 
another  yet  more  notable  contrast,  between  the  cases  of 
America  and  Greece.  The  populations  directly  inter- 


206  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

ested  were  not  very  different  in  number.  Of  quick  and 
shrewd  intellect  there  certainly  was  no  lack  in  either, 
But  the  solid  statesmen,  the  upright  and  noble  leaders, 
who  sprang  forth  in  abundance  to  meet  the  need  in 
the  one  case,  were  sadly  wanting  in  the  other.  The 
colonists  of  America  had  been  reared  under  a  system 
essentially  free;  and  they  rose  in  resentment  against 
an  invasion  of  freedom  but  partial,  and  comparatively 
slight.  The  revolted  Hellenic  population  had  for  four 
centuries  been  crushed  and  ground  down  under  a 
system,  far  from  uniform  in  a  thousand  points,  yet 
uniform  only  in  this,  that  it  was  fatal  to  the  growth 
of  the  highest  excellence.  It  is  in  and  by  freedom 
only,  that  adequate  preparation  for  fuller  freedom  can 
be  made. 

CLXVIII. 

England  was  an  early  recipient  of  the  Greek  studies 
in  her  two  Universities  ;  and  the  close  connection  of 
her  rising  literature  with  Italy,  ensured  her  sharing 
largely  in  all  the  impulses  which  had  convulsed  or 
touched  the  mother-country  of  our  civilization.  The 
marks  not  only  of  Italy,  but  of  Boccaccio,  are  stamped 
upon  English  letters  from  Chaucer  onwards.  But 
Chaucer  exhibits  neither  the  moral  foulness,  nor  that 
deep  underlying  of  the  pagan  spirit,  which  marks  the 


LITERATURE.  207 

great  Italian  novelist.     His  "  goodman  of  religion,"  is 
purely  and  strongly  Christian  : 

"  But  Criste's  lore  and  his  apostles  twelve, 
He  taught ;  but  first  he  followed  it  himselve." 

One  of  the  very  sweetest  and  most  perfect  of  Chris- 
tian poems  is  "  The  Merle  and  the  Nightingale,"  by 
Dunbar.  If  it  be  said  that  this  difference  was  national 
and  not  religious,  it  has  also  to  be  replied  that  England 
was  distinguished  from  Italy  between  the  thirteenth 
and  the  sixteenth  centuries,  first  by  a  doctrinal  reaction 
among  a  portion  of  the  people,  which  found  vent  in 
Wiclif  and  in  Lollardism  ;  secondly,  by  that  strong  and 
truly  national  reaction  against  the  court  and  see  of 
Rome,  which  touched  its  climax  in  the  proceedings  of 
the  reign  of  Henry  VIII. 

CLXIX. 

Shakespeare  undoubtedly  exhibits  a  strong  reaction 
against  the  transcendental  spiritualism  of  the  middle 
ages.  It  is  hard  to  measure  the  distance  between  his 
mental  attitude  and  that  of  Thomas  a  Kempis,  or  even 
that  of  Dante",  who  was,  outwardly  at  least,  a  man  of 
the  world,  a  practical  politician  and  partizan.  The 
mediaeval  church,  or  rather  that  part  of  it  which  aimed 
at  fidelity  to  its  mission,  in  its  anxiety  to  keep  religion 
pure  and  lofty,  had  set  a  gulf  between  it  and  the  rude 


2o8  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

common  life.  Its  idea  was  lofty ;  but  it  was  not  the 
idea  of  training  the  human  being  in  every  faculty  and 
for  every  function  of  the  present  existence  as  the  nor- 
mal means  of  preparing  him  for  a  remoter  future. 
Mary  it  followed ;  but  Martha,  who  of  necessity  must 
be  more  typical  of  the  mass  of  Christians,  it  rather 
proscribed.  The  conditions  of  earthly  existence  were 
renounced,  rather  than  sanctified,  in  the  religious 
ideal. 

In  order  to  the  eventual  re-establishment  of  the 
balance  between  the  worlds,  there  required  to  be  a 
strong  reassertion,  not  only  of  the  reality  of  this  world 
and  of  life  in  it,  but  of  their  legitimacy.  They,  and 
not  the  cloister,  were  the  school,  in  which  the  Almighty 
had  appointed  his  children  to  be  taught  and  reared. 
Hence  came,  as  the  grand  characteristic  of  the  Eliza- 
bethian  age,  what  Mr.  Dowden  in  his  "  Mind  and  Art 
of  Shakespeare,"  calls  "  devotion  to  the  fact,"  "  at- 
tainment of  the  fact,"  "  rich  feeling  for  positive  con- 
crete fact."  In  this  reaching  out  with  one  arm,  so  to 
speak,  of  our  nature  over  the  whole  terrestrial  domain, 
there  was  a  real  widening  of  the  scope  of  life ;  and  if 
we  look  back  impartially  to  the  history  of  that  great 
period,  it  seems  difficult  to  deny  that  there  was  also  a 
great  accession  of  new  human  energy  to  the  pre-existing 
stock.  It  was  the  office  of  the  other  arm  to  embrace 
the  unseen  life  ;  and  probably  this  grasp  was  weakened 
for  the  time.  It  could  hardly  be  but  that,  as  in  ail 


LIT  ERA  TURE.  209 

human  reactions,  the  function  restored  should  tres- 
pass on  the  province  of  the  function  previously  in  too 
exclusive  possession. 

We  need  not  then  be  surprised  that  the  works  of 
Shakespeare,  as  a  whole,  bear  a  somewhat  worldly 
aspect ;  that  in  their  exhibition  of  human  nature,  en- 
tirely unrivalled  in  all  literature  for  largeness  and 
variety,  with  depth,  so  small  a  portion  should  be  seen 
on  the  side  lying  heavenward ;  that  saintship,  where 
it  appears  in  Henry  VI.,  is  emasculated  and  inco- 
herent ;  that  not  only  in  his  early  plays,  such  as 
"  Romeo  and  Juliet,"  but  in  the  later  and  greater 
works,  "Macbeth,"  "Othello,"  "Hamlet,"  "Lear," 
the  deep  problems  of  our  life  and  duty  are  handled 
upon  a  basis  which  is  but  negatively  Christian.  This 
is  the  more  noteworthy,  because  a  multitude  of  pas- 
sages exhibit  Shakespeare  as  an  undoubting  believer. 
But  religion  had  been  wrenched  away  from  life ;  and 
life,  in  its  recoil,  busied  with  the  gathering  of  all  its 
energies,  had  not  recovered  the  key  to  its  own  har- 
mony with  religion. 

I  have  endeavored  here  not  to  understate  the  charge, 
which  a  Beatrice  might  be  warranted  in  making  against 
our  Elizabethian  age.  But  when  we  compare  the 
English  "  Paganism,"  as  exhibited  in  Shakespeare,  with 
the  Italian  Paganism,  hardened  into  an  Epicurean 
creed,  and  sanctioned  by  the  Roman  court,  or  teach- 
ing with  the  very  same  pen,  as  in  the  "  divine  " 


2io  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

Aretino,  the  vilest  profligacy  and  the  most  orthodox 
theology,  or  even  as  it  is  exhibited  in  the  splendid 
poetry  of  Bojardo  and  Ariosto,  I  cannot  but  think  that, 
in  fidelity  to  history  and  the  fact,  we  must  allow  that 
the  comparison  is  favorable,  as  far  as  it  goes,  to  Eng- 
land and  to  the  Reformation. 

CLXX. 

With  great  judgment  four  names  have  bean  chosen 
by  Mr.  Dowden  as  being  together  typical  of  the  Eliza- 
bethian  age  in  letters  :  Shakespeare,  Bacon,  Spenser, 
Hooker.  The  magnificent  intellect  of  Bacon  is  held 
by  Mr.  Dowden  to  have  been  profoundly  indifferent 
to  religion.  Is  this  truly  so  ?  I  do  not  presume  to 
deny  that  in  Bacon's  character  "the  world  that  now 
is,"  weighed  far  more  than  "  that  which  is  to  come." 
But  I  would  appeal  with  some  confidence  to  his  ac- 
count, for  example  of  the  fall  of  man,  as  a  proof  that 
he  rendered  a  solid  faith  and  fealty  to  the  Christian 
dogma.  As  for  Spenser,  it  is  surely  notable  that, 
forming  himself  as  he  did  upon  the  poets  of  the 
Italian  romance,  he  utterly  renounced  their  unclean- 
ness,  and,  as  it  were,  "  passed  by  on  the  other  side." 
More  still  it  is  to  be  noted  that,  while  far  from  being 
the  most  robust  of  the  band,  Spenser  is  the  one  who 
seems  to  have  taken  the  best  aim  at  the  literary  res- 
toration of  a  true  theory  of  life.  All  virtue,  all  duty, 


LITERATURE.  211 

all  activeness  of  the  human  character,  are  set  out  by 
him,  under  the  forms  of  chivalry,  for  our  instruction : 
but  his  ideal  knight  is  Christian  to  the  core. 

"  And  on  his  breast  a  bloody  Cross  he  bore, 
The  dear  remembrance  of  his  dying  Lord, 
For  whose  sweet  sake  that  glorious  badge  he  wore, 
And  dead  as  living,  ever  him  adored." 

Nor  was  Hooker  less  a  restorer  than  his  great  com- 
peers. For  was  it  not  given  to  him  to  recall  our 
theology  from  the  hungry  region  of  mere  polemics  to 
that  of  positive  and  fruitful  truth,  and  to  become  the 
father  of  a  long  line  of  divines,  reared  undoubtedly 
in  the  mere  Anglican  paddocks,  yet  not  without  name 
and  honor  in  the  wide  pastures  of  the  Christian  world. 

CLXXI. 

Undoubtedly  the  chief  work  of  Tasso  rests  upon  a 
basis  of  Christian  facts :  yet  it  may  be  doubted  whether 
the  Christianity  of  Milton,  as  exhibited  in  his  works, 
with  all  its  errors  or  offences,  had  not  in  it  far  more 
of  the  character  of  a  living  operative  power,  holding 
the  allegiance  of  heart  and  will.  Again,  while  in  the 
last  century,  the  Yoltairian  torrent  carried  away  the 
mind  of  France,  the  three  most  prominent  contem- 
porary names  in  English  literature,  those  of  Johnson, 
Burke,  and  Richardson,  were  eminently  Christian.  At 


212  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

a  later  period  we  can  point  to  at  least  four  great 
contemporary  poets,  Wordsworth,  Coleridge,  Southey; 
and  Scott,  none  of  them  professional  or  theological, 
but  all  markedly  Christian.  It  might  be  difficult  to 
find  a  parallel  within  the  Roman  pale.  Men  such  as 
these,  it  must  be  remembered,  are  fountainheads  of 
thought,  moulders  and  makers  of  the  generations  yet 
to  come, 

"  Poets,  whose  thoughts  enrich  the  blood  o'  the  world." 

At  the  present  moment,  indeed,  belief  in  the  revela 
tion  of  the  unseen,  is  undergoing,  here  as  elsewhere, 
a  shock  which  is  without  parallel,  at  least  in  the  his- 
tory of  England,  for  the  activity  of  its  manifestations  ; 
and  is  suffering  a  sharp  retribution  for  all  the  errors 
of  all  its  professors.  But  it  remains  to  be  seen  whether 
what  we  witness  is  a  structural  change,  like  those 
which  fill  the  record  of  geological  time,  or  whether  it 
is  the  wave  of  a  cyclone,  which  wastes  and  submerges, 
and  is  then  re-absorbed.  So  it  was  with  the  unbelief 
which  Bishop  Butler  described ;  so  it  may  be  again. 
It  is,  however,  even  now,  my  persuasion  that  so  far 
as  men  of  mature  life  are  concerned,  there  is  exag- 
geration abroad,  if  not  as  to  the  world  of  physical 
science  —  which  has  not  yet  become  the  "  mother  and 
mistress  of  all  the  sciences" — yet  as  to  the  world 
of  literature ;  still  more  as  to  the  sphere  of  those 
professions,  which  are  mainly  conversant  with  human 


LITERATURE.  213 

life  and  action,  and  which,  as  I  cannot  but  think,  must 
best  prepare  men  to  judge  of  any  scheme,  which  has 
for  its  object  the  training  of  mankind. 

CLXXII. 

In  the  middle  ages  we  find  two  great  systems  of 
Romance,  one  of  which  has  Lancelot,  the  other  Orlando 
for  its  culminating  point ;  these  heroes  being  exhibited 
as  the  respective  specimens  in  whose  characters  the 
fullest  development  of  man,  such  as  he  was  then  con- 
ceived, was  to  be  recognized.  The  one  put  forward 
Arthur  for  the  visible  head  of  Christendom,  signifying 
and  asserting  its  social  unity;  the  other  had  Charle- 
magne. Each  arrays,  round  about  the  Sovereign,  a 
fellowship  of  knights.  In  them,  Valor  is  the  servant 
of  Honor ;  in  an  age,  in  which  violence  is  the  besetting 
danger  the  protection  of  the  weak  is  elevated  into  a 
first  principle  of  action  ,  and  they  betoken  an  order  of 
things  in  which  Force  should  be  only  known  as  allied 
with  virtue,  while  they  historically  foreshadow  the 
magnificent  aristocracy  of  mediaeval  Europe.  The  one 
had  Guinevere  for  the  earliest  gem  of  beauty,  the  other 
had  Angelica.  Each  of  them  contained  figures  of 
approximation  to  the  knightly  model,  and  in  each  these 
figures,  though  on  the  whole  secondary,  yet  in  certain 
aspects  surpassed  it :  such  were  Sir  Tristram,  Sir  Galahad 
Sir  Lamoracke,  Sir  Gawain,  Sir  Geraint,  in  the  Arthur- 


214  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

ian  cycle ;  Rinaldo  and  Ruggiero,  with  others   in  the 
Carlovingian. 

The  two  were  not  twin  systems,  but  were  rather  twin 
investitures  of  the  same  scheme  of  ideas  and  feelings. 
Their  consanguinity  to  the  primitive  Homeric  types  is 
proved  by  a  multitude  of  analogies  of  character,  and  by 
the  commanding  place  which  they  assign  to  Hector  as 
the  flower  of  human  excellence.  Without  doubt,  this 
preference  was  founded  on  his  supposed  moral  supe- 
riority to  all  his  fellows  in  Homer ;  and  the  secondary 
prizes  of  strength,  valor,  and  the  like,  were  naturally 
allowed  to  group  themselves  around  what,  under  the 
Christian  scheme,  had  become  the  primary  ornament 
of  man.  The  near  relation  of  the  two  Cycles  one  to 
the  other  may  be  sufficiently  seen  in  the  leading 
references  we  have  made  ;  and  it  runs  into  a  multitude 
of  details  both  great  and  small,  of  which  we  can  only 
note  a  few.  In  both  the  chief  hero  passes  through  a 
prolonged  term  of  madness.  Judas,  in  the  College  of 
Apostles,  is  represented  under  Charlemagne  in  Gano 
di  Magawza  and  his  house ;  who  appear,  without  any 
development  in  action,  in  the  Arthurian  romances  as 
"  the  traitours  of  Magouns,"  and  who  are  likewise 
reflected  in  Sir  Modred,  Sir  Agravain,  and  others ; 
while  the  Mahometan  element,  which  has  a  natural 
place  ready  made  for  it  in  a  history  that  acknowledges 
Charlemagne  and  France  for  its  centres,  finds  its  way 
sympathetically  into  one  which  is  bounded  for  the 


LITERATURE.  215 

most  part  by  the  shores  of  Albion.  Both  schemes 
cling  to  the  tradition  of  the  unity  of  the  Empire,  as 
well  as  of  Christendom ;  and  accordingly,  what  was 
historical  in  Charlemagne  is  represented,  in  the  case 
of  Arthur,  by  an  imaginary  conquest  reaching  as  far 
as  Rome,  the  capital  of  the  West.  Even  the  sword 
Durindana  has  its  counterpart  in  the  sword  Excalibur. 

CLXXIII. 

We  of  the  nineteenth  century  read  the  Carlovingian 
romance  in  the  pages  of  Ariosto  and  Bojardo,  who  gave 
to  their  materials  the  color  of  their  times,  and  of  a 
civilization  rank  in  some  respects,  while  still  unripe  in 
some  others.  The  genius  of  poetry  was  not  at  the 
same  period  applying  its  transmuting  force  to  the  Ro- 
mance of  the  Round  Table.  The  date  of  Sir  Thomas 
Mallory,  who  lived  under  Edward  IV.,  is  something 
earlier  than  that  of  the  great  Italian  romances  ;  Eng- 
land was  younger  in  its  political  development ;  he 
appears,  too,  to  have  been  on  the  whole  content  with 
the  humble  offices  of  a  compiler  and  a  chronicler,  and 
we  may  conceive  that  his  spirit  and  diction  are  still 
older  than  his  date.  The  consequence  is,  that  we  are 
brought  into  more  immediate  and  fresher  contact  with 
the  original  forms  of  this  romance.  So  that,  as  they 
present  themselves  to  us,  the  Carlovingian  cycle  is  the 


216  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

child   of  the  latest   middle   age,  while    the  Arthurian 
represents  the  earlier. 

Much  might  be  said  on  the  specific  differences  which 
have  thus  arisen,  and  on  those  which  may  be  due  to 
a  more  northern  and  a  more  southern  extraction  re- 
spectively. Suffice  it  to  say  that  the  Romance  of  the 
Round  Table,  far  less  vivid  and  brilliant,  far  ruder  as 
a  work  of  skill  and  art,  has  more  of  the  innocence,  the 
emotion,  the  transparency,  the  inconsistency  of  child- 
hood. Its  political  action  is  less  specifically  Christian 
than  that  of  the  rival  scheme,  its  individual  portraits 
more  so.  It  is  more  directly  and  seriously  aimed  at 
the  perfection  of  man.  It  is  more  free  from  gloss  and 
varnish;  it  tells  its  own  tale  with  more  entire  sim- 
plicity. The  ascetic  element  is  more  strongly,  and  at 
the  same  time  more  quaintly,  developed.  It  has  a 
higher  conception  of  the  nature  of  woman  ;  and,  like 
the  Homeric  poems,  it  appears  to  eschew  exhibiting 
her  perfections  in  alliance  with  warlike  force  and  ex- 
ploits. So  also  love,  while  largely  infused  into  the 
story,  is  more  subordinate  to  the  exhibition  of  other 
qualities.  Again  the  Romance  of  the  Round  Table 
bears  witness  to  a  more  distinct  and  keener  sense  of 
sin ;  and  on  the  whole,  a  deeper,  broader,  and  more 
manly  view  of  human  character,  life,  and  duty.  It  is, 
in  effect,  more  like  what  the  Carlovingian  cycle  might 
have  be^n,  had  Dante'  moulded  it.  It  hardly  needs  to 
be  added  that  it  is  more  mythical;  inasmuch  as  Arthur 


LITERATURE. 


217 


of  the  Round  Table  is  a  personage,  we  fear,  wholly 
doubtful,  though  not  impossible ;  while  the  broad  back 
of  the  historic  Charlemagne,  like  another  Atlas,  may 
well  sustain  a  world  of  legendary  accretions.  This 
slight  comparison,  be  it  remarked,  refers  exclusively 
to  what  may  be  termed  the  latest  "  redactions  "  of  the 
two  cycles  of  romance. 

CLXXIV. 

The  Arthurian  Romance  has  every  recommendation 
that  should  win  its  way  to  the  homage  of  a  great 
poet.  It  is  national :  it  is  Christian.  It  is  also  human 
in  the  largest  and  deepest  sense ;  and  therefore,  though 
highly  national,  it  is  universal ;  for  it  rests  upon  those 
depths  and  breadths  of  our  nature,  to  which  all  its 
truly  great  developments,  in  all  nations,  are  alike 
essentially  and  closely  related.  The  distance  is  enough 
for  atmosphere,  not  too  much  for  sympathy,  A  poet 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  Laureate  in  "  Idylls  of 
the  King,"  has  in  the  main  appropriated  and  adapted 
characters,  incidents,  and  even  language,  instead  of 
attempting  to  project  them,  on  a  basis  of  his  own,  in 
the  region  illimitable  fancy.  But  he  has  done  much 
more  than  this.  Evidently  by  reading  and  by  deep 
meditation,  as  well  as  by  sheer  force  of  genius,  he  has 
penetrated  himself,  down  to  the  very  core  of  his  being 
with  all  that  is  deepest  and  best  in  the  spirit  of  the 


218  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

time,  or  in  the  representation  with  which  he  deals ; 
and  as  others,  using  old  materials,  have  been  free  to 
alter  them  in  the  sense  of  vulgarity  or  license,  so  he 
has  claimed  and  used  the  right  to  sever  and  recom- 
bine,  to  enlarge,  retrench,  and  modify,  for  the  purposes 
at  once  of  a  more  powerful  and  elaborate  art  than  his 
original  presents,  and  of  a  yet  more  elevated,  or  at 
least  ofc  a  far  more  sustained,  ethical  and  Christian 
strain. 

CLXXV. 

Every  translation  of  a  great  work,  to  be  good,  must 
have  great  original  qualities.  We  must  not  confound 
the  subject  by  assimilating  the  work  of  the  translator 
to  that  of  the  copyist  in  painting.  In  that  case  the 
problem  is  to  construct  an  image  of  the  picture,  given 
the  very  same  materials.  But,  in  the  case  of  pure 
mental  products,  the  material  form  is  the  language, 
and  the  very  condition  of  the  work  is  that  this  be 
changed,  as  the  workman  must  reproduce  in  another 
tongue.  In  proportion  as  the  original  to  be  rendered 
is  a  great  one,  the  union  between  the  thought  of  the 
writer  and  his  language  is  more  intimate.  At  every 
step  as  the  translator  proceeds,  he  feels  that  he  is 
tearing  asunder  soul  and  body,  life  and  its  vehicle  ;  so 
that  in  order  to  succeed  in  his  task,  he  must  within 
certain  limits,  create  new. 


LITERATURE.  219 

CLXXVI. 

It  was  said  of  Socrates  that  he  called  down  philoso- 
phy from  heaven,  that  the  enterprise  of  certain  en- 
lightened publishers  has  taught  them  to  work  for  the 
million,  and  that  is  a  very  important  fact.  When  I 
was  a  boy  I  used  to  be  fond  of  looking  into  a  book- 
seller's shop,  but  there  was  nothing  to  be  seen  there 
that  was  accessible  to  the  working  man  of  that  day. 
Take  a  Shakespeare,  for  example.  I  remember  very 
well  that  I  gave  two  pounds  sixteen  shillings  for  my 
first  copy  ;  but  now  you  can  get  an  admirable  copy 
for  three  shillings.  Those  books  are  accessible  now 
which  formerly  were  quite  inaccessible.  Multitudes  of 
books  now  are  constantly  being  prepared  and  placed 
within  reach  of  the  population  at  large,  for  the  most 
part  executed  by  writers  of  a  high  stamp,  having  sub- 
jects of  the  greatest  interest,  and  which  enables  one  at 
a  moderate  price,  not  to  get  a  cheap  literature  which 
is  secondary  in  its  quality,  but  to  go  straight  into  the 
very  heart,  if  I  may  so  say,  into  the  sanctuary  of  the 
temple  of  literature  —  and  become  acquainted  with 
the  greatest  and  best  works  that  have  been  produced. 
Some  effort  should  be  made  by  men  of  all  classes,  and 
perhaps  none  more  than  by  the  laboring  class,  to  lift 
ourselves  above  the  level  of  what  is  purely  frivolous, 
and  to  endeavor  to  find  our  amusement  in  making  our- 


220  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

selves   acquainted    with   things  of    real    interest   and 
beauty. 

CLXXVII. 

It  is  too  commonly  assumed  that  provided  only  we 
repair  to  our  church  or  our  chapel,  as  the  case  may 
be,  the  performance  of  the  work  of  adoration,  is  a 
thing  which  may  be  taken  for  granted.  But  so  it  is, 
in  the  absence  of  unequivocal  signs  to  the  contrary, 
as  between  man  and  man.  But  not  as  between  the 
individual  man  and  his  own  conscience  in  the  hour 
of  self-review.  If  he  knows  anything  of  himself,  and 
unless  he  be  a  person  of  singularly  favored  gifts,  he 
will  know  that  the  work  of  Divine  Worship,  so  far 
from  being  a  thing  of  course  even  among  those  who 
outwardly  address  themselves  to  its  performance,  is 
one  of  the  most  arduous  which  the  human  spirit  can 
possibly  set  about. 

The  processes  of  simple  self-knowledge  are  difficult 
enough.  All  these,  when  a  man  worships,  should  be 
fresh  in  his  consciousness  ;  and  this  is  the  first  indis- 
pensable condition  for  a  right  attitude  of  the  soul 
before  the  footstool  of  the  Eternal.  The  next  is  a 
frame  of  the  affections  adjusted  on  the  one  hand  to 
this  self-knowledge,  and  on  the  other  to  the  attributes 
and  the  more  nearly  felt  presence,  of  the  Being  before 
whom  we  stand.  And  the  third  is  the  sustained  mental 
effort  necessary  to  complete  the  act,  wherein  every 


WORSHIP.  221 

Christian  is  a  priest ;  to  carry  our  whole  selves,  as  it 
were  with  our  own  hands,  into  that  nearer  Presence, 
and,  uniting  the  humble  and  unworthy  prosphora  with 
the  one  full  perfect  and  sufficient  Sacrifice,  to  offer  it 
upon  the  altar  of  the  heart :  putting  aside  every  dis- 
traction of  the  outward  sense,  and  endeavoring  to 
complete  the  individual  act  as  fully,  as  when  in  loneli- 
ness, after  departing  out  of  the  flesh,  we  shall  see 
eternal  things  no  longer  through,  but  without,  a  veil. 

CLXXVIII. 

Now,  considering  how  we  live,  and  must  live,  our 
common  life  in  and  by  the  senses,  how  all  sustained 
mental  abstraction  is  an  effort,  how  the  exercise  of 
sympathy  itself,  which  is  such  a  power  in  Christian 
worship,  is  also  a  kind  of  bond  to  the  visible ;  and  then 
last  of  all,  with  what  feebleness  and  fluctuation,  not  to 
say  with  what  wayward  duplicity,  of  intention  we 
undertake  the  work,  is  it  not  too  clear  that  in  such  a 
work  we  shall  instinctively  be  too  apt  to  remit  our 
energies,  and  to  slide  unawares  into  mere  perfunctory 
performance?  And  where  and  in  proportion  as  the 
service  of  the  body  is  more  careful,  and  the  exterior 
decency  and  solemnity  of  the  public  assembling  more 
unimpeachable,  these  things  themselves  may  contribute 
to  form  important  elements  of  that  inward  self-com- 
placency which  makes  it  so  easy  for  us,  whenever  we 


222  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

ourselves  are  judge  and  jury  as  well  as  "  prisoner  at  the 
bar,"  to  obtain  a  verdict  of  acquittal. 

In  other  words,  the  very  things,  which  find  their  only 
sufficient  warrant  in  their  capacity  and  fitness  to  assist 
the  work  of  inward  worship,  are  particularly  apt  to  be 
accepted  by  the  individual  himself  as  a  substitute  for 
inward  worship,  on  account  of  that  very  capacity  and 
fitness,  of  their  inherent  beauty  and  solemnity,  of  their 
peculiar  and  unworldly  type.  So  that  ritual,  because 
it  is  full  of  use,  is  also  full  of  clangers.  Though  it  is 
clear  that  men  increase  responsibility  by  augmenting 
it,  they  do  not  escape  from  danger  by  its  diminution  ; 
nothing  can  make  ritual  safe  except  the  strict  obser- 
vance of  its  purpose,  namely,  that  it  shall  supply  wings 
to  the  human  soul  in  its  callow  efforts  at  upward  flight. 
And  such  being  the  meaning  of  true  ritual,  the  first 
measure  of  it  is  to  be  found  in  the  degree  in  which 
it  furnishes  that  assistance  to  the  individual  Christian. 

CLXXIX. 

It  is  difficult,  I  think,  to  fix  a  maximum  of  ritual  for 
all  times  and  persons,  and  to  predicate  that  all  beyond 
the  line  must  be  harmful ;  but  it  is  impossible  to  fix  a 
minimum,  and  then  to  say,  up  to  that  point  we  are  safe. 
No  ritual  is  too  much,  provided  it  is  subsidiary  to  the 
inner  work  of  worship ;  and  all  ritual  is  too  much 
unless  it  ministers  to  that  purpose. 


WORSHIP.  223 

CLXXX. 

If  we  study,  by  appropriate  or  by  rich  embellishment, 
to  make  the  church  more  like  the  ideal  of  the  house 
of  God,  and  the  services  in  it  more  impressive,  by 
outward  signs  oi  his  greatness  and  goodness,  and  of 
our  littleness  and  meanness,  all  these  are  so  many 
voices  addressing  us,  voices  audible  and  intelligible, 
though  inarticulate ;  and  to  let  them  sound  in  our  ears 
unheeded,  is  an  offence  against  his  majesty.  If  we  are 
not  the  better  for  more  ritual  we  are  the  worse  for 
it.  A  general  augmentation  of  ritual,  such  as  we  see 
on  every  side  around  us,  if  it  be  without  any  cor- 
responding enhancement  of  devotion,  means  more  light 
but  not  more  love. 

Indeed,  it  is  even  conceivable,  nay  far  from  improb- 
able, that  augmentation  of  ritual  may  import  not 
increase  but  even  diminution  of  fervor.  Such  must 
be  the  result  in  every  case  where  the  imagery  of  the 
eye  and  ear,  actively  multiplied,  is  allowed  to  draw  off 
the  energy,  which  ought  to  have  its  centre  in  the  heart. 
There  cannot  be  a  doubt  that  the  beauty  of  the 
edifice,  the  furniture,  and  the  service,  though  their 
purpose  be  to  carry  the  mind  forward,  may  induce 
it  to  rest  upon  those  objects  themselves.  Wherever 
the  growth  and  progress  of  ritual,  though  that  ritual  be 
in  itself  suitable  and  proper,  is  accepted,  whether  con- 
sciously or  unconsciously,  and  whether  in  whole  or  in 


224  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

part  by  the  individual,  as  standing  in  the  stead  of  his 
own  concentration  and  travail  of  spirit  in  devotion,  there 
the  ritual,  though  good  in  itself,  becomes  for  him  so 
much  formality,  that  is  so  much  deadness. 

Now  there  are  multitudes  of  people  who  will  accede 
at  once  to  this  proposition,  who  will  even  hold  it  to 
be  no  more  than  a  truism,  but  with  a  complacent 
conviction,  in  the  background  of  their  minds,  that  it 
does  not  touch  their  case  at  all.  They  may  be  Pres- 
byterians or  Nonconformists;  or  they  may  be  Church- 
men whose  clergyman  preaches  against  Popery  open 
or  concealed,  or  who  have  themselves  subscribed  lib- 
erally to  prosecute  the  Rev.  this  or  the  Rev.  that 
for  Ritualism.  No  matter.  They,  and  their  clergyman 
too,  may  nevertheless  be  flagrant  Ritualists.  For  the 
barest  minimum  of  ritual  may  be  a  screen  hiding  from 
the  worshipper  the  Object  of  his  worship :  nay,  will 
be  such  a  screen,  unless  the  worshipper  bestirs  himself 
to  use  it  as  a  help,  and  to  see  that  it  is  not  a  snare. 

CLXXXI. 

In  the  word  Ritualism,  there  is  involved  much  more 
than  the  popular  mind  seems  to  suppose.  The  present 
movement  in  favor  of  ritual  is  not  confined  to  ritualists, 
neither' is  it  confined  even  to  churchmen.  It  has  been, 
when  all  things  are  considered,  quite  as  remarkable 
among  Nonconformists  and  Presbyterians  ;  not  because 


WORSHIP.  225 

they  have  as  much  of  it,  but  because  they  formerly 
had  none,  and  because  their  system  appeared  to  have 
been  devised  and  adjusted  in  order  to  prevent  its 
introduction,  and  to  fire  upon  it  even  in  litnine  the 
aspect  of  a  flagrant  departure  from  first  principles. 
Crosses  on  the  outside  of  chapels;  rich  pointed 
architecture;  that  flagrant  piece  of  symbolism,  the 
steeple  ;  windows  filled  with  subjects  in  stained  glass ; 
elaborate  chanting;  the  use  of  the  Lord's  prayer 
which  is  not  more  than  the  thin  end  of  the  wedge 
that  is  to  introduce  fixed  forms ;  and  the  partial  move- 
ments in  favor  of  such  forms  already  developed ; 
these  are  among  the  signs  which,  taken  all  together, 
form  a  group  of  phenomena  evidently  referable  to 
some  cause  far  more  deep  and  wide-working  than 
mere  servile  imitation,  or  the  fashion  of  the  day. 

CLXXXII. 

If  we  survey  the  Christian  world,  we  shall  have  oc- 
casion to  observe  that  ritual  does  not  bear  an  unvary- 
ing relation  to  doctrine.  The  most  notable  proof  of 
this  assertion  is  to  be  found  in  the  Lutheran  commu- 
nion. It  is  strongly  and  except  where  opinion  has 
deviated  in  the  direction  of  rationalism,  uniformly 
Protestant.  But  in  portions  of  the  considerable  area 
over  which  it  stretches,  as  for  example  in  Denmark,  in 
Sweden  and  Norway,  even  on  the  inhospitable  shores 


226  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

of  Iceland,  altars,  vestments,  lights  (if  not  even  incense) 
are  retained  :  the  clergyman  is  called  the  priest,  and 
the  Communion  Office  is  termed  the  Mass.  But  there 
is  no  distinction  of  doctrine  whatever  between  Swedish 
or  Danish,  and  German  Lutherans :  nor,  according  to 
the  best  authorities,  has  the  chain  of  the  Episcopal 
succession  been  maintained  in  those  countries.  Even 
in  England,  there  are  some  of  those  clergy  who  are 
called  Broadchurchmen,  nay  some  who  have  a  marked 
indifference  to  doctrine,  and  what  might  almost  be 
called  a  hatred  of  dogma,  yet  who  also  are  inclined  to 
musical  ornament,  and  other  paraphernalia  of  divine 
service. 

CLXXXIII. 

When  we  see  the  extraordinary  progress  of  ritual 
observance  during  the  last  generation,  who  is  there 
that  can  be  so  sanguine  as  to  suppose  that  there  has 
been  a  corresponding  growth  of  inward  fervor,  and  of 
mental  intelligence,  in  our  general  congregations  ? 
There  is  indeed  a  rule  of  simple  decency  to  which, 
under  all  circumstances,  we  should  strive  to  rise  —  for 
indecency  in  public  worship  is  acted  profanity,  and  is 
grossly  irreligious  in  its  effects.  But,  when  the  stand- 
ard of  decency  has  once  been  attained,  ought  not  the 
further  steps  to  be  vigilantly  watched,  I  do  not  say 
by  law,  but  by  conscience  ? 


WORSHIP.  227 

There  are   influences   at  work   among   us,  far  from 
spiritual,  which  may  work  in  the  direction  of  formalism 
through  the  medium   of  ritual.     The   vast  amount  of 
new-made  wealth  in  England  does  not  indeed  lead  to 
a  display  as  profuse  in  the  embellishment  of  the  house 
of  God,  as   in  mansions,  equipages,  or   dresses.     Yet 
the  wealthy,   as  such,  have  a   preference  for  churches 
and  for  services  with  a  certain  amount  of  ornament : 
and  it  is  quite  possible  that  no  small  part  of  what  we 
call  the  improvements  in  fabrics  and  in  worship  may 
be  due  simply  to  the  demand  of  the  richer  man  for  a 
more  costly  article,   and    this  may  represent  not   the 
spiritual  growth  but  the  materializing  tendencies  of  the 
age.     Again,  there  is  a  wider  diffusion  of  taste  among 
the  many,  though  the  faculty  itself  may  not,  with   the 
few,  have  gained  a  finer  edge  ;  and,  with  this,  the  sense 
of   the   incongruous,    and   the   grotesque,    cannot   but 
make  some  way.     Here  is  another  agency,  adapted  to 
improving  the  face  and  form  of  our  religious  services, 
without  that  which,  as  I  would  contend,  is  the  indis- 
pensable  condition   of  all  real   and   durable  improve- 
ment ;   namely,  a  corresponding  growth  in  the  appre- 
ciation of  the  inward  work  of  devotion. 

But  a  third  and  very  important  cause,  working  in 
the  same  direction,  has  been  this.  The  standard  of 
life  and  of  devotion  has  risen  among  the  clergy  far 
more  generally,  and  doubtless  also  more  rapidly,  than 
among  the  laity.  It  is  more  than  possible  that,  in 


228  THE  MIGHT^OF  RIGHT. 

many  instances,  their  own  enlarged  and  elevated  con- 
ception of  what  divine  sendee  ought  to  be  in  order 
to  answer  the  genuine  demands  of  their  own  inward 
life,  may  have  induced  them  to  raise  it  in  their  several 
churches  beyond  any  real  capacity  of  their  congrega- 
tions to  appreciate  and  turn  it  to  account. 

• 

CLXXXIV. 

Doubtless  it  is  conceivable,  that  divine  service  may 
be  rendered  by  careful  ritual  more  suitable  to  the 
dignity  of  its  purpose.  But  let  us  take,  on  the  other 
hand,  a  church  where  a  ritual  thus  improved  has  been 
forced  upon  a  congregation  to  whom  its  provisions 
were  like  an  unknown  tongue,  and  whom  it  has  there- 
fore banished  from  the  walls  of  the  sanctuary.  Is  it 
conceivable  that  such  a  spectacle  can  be  a  pleasing 
one  in  the  sight  of  the  Most  High  ?  Did  Christianity 
itself  come  down  into  the  world  in  abstract  perfec- 
tion and  in  full  development  ?  or  was  it  not  rather 
opened  on  the  world  with  nice  regard  to  the  contracted 
pupil  of  the  human  eye,  which  it  was  gradually  to 
enlarge,  unfolding  itself  from  day  to  day,  in  successive 
lessons  of  doctrine  and  event,  here  a  little  and  there 
a  little  ?  The  jewels  in  the  crown  of  the  Bride  are  the 
flocks  within  the  walls  of  the  temple ;  and  men  ever 
so  hard  of  hearing  are  better  than  an  empty  bench. 


WORSHIP.  229 

CLXXXV. 

In  the  fourteenth  chapter  of  St.  Paul's  First  Epistle 
to  the  Corinthians,  may  be  found,  what  I  would  call 
the  code  of  the  New  Testament  upon  ritual.  The  rules 
laid  down  by  the  apostle  to  determine  the  comparative 
value  of  the  gifts  then  so  common  in  the  Church,  will 
be  found  to  contain  the  principles  applicable  to  the 
regulation  of  divine  service;  and  it  is  touching  to 
observe  that  they  are  immediately  subjoined  to  that 
wonderful  effusion  describing  "  Charity,"  with  which 
no  ethical  eloquence  of  Greece  or  Rome  can  suitably 
compare. 

CLXXXVI. 

The  best  touchstone  for  dividing  what  is  wrong  and 
defining  what  is  right  in  the  exterior  apparel  of  divine 
service  will  be  found  in  the  holy  desire  and  authorita- 
tive demand  of  the  apostle,  "that  the  Church  may 
receive  edifying,"  rather  than  an  abstract  imagery  of 
perfection  on  the  one  hand,  or  any  form  of  narrow 
traditional  prejudice  on  the  other. 

CLXXXVII. 

There  are  surely  enough  real  occasions  for  conten- 
tion in  the  world  to  satisfy  the  most  greedy  appetite, 


230  THE  MIGHT* OF  RIGHT. 

without  adding  to  them  those  which  are  conventional, 
that  is  to  say,  those  where  the  contention  is  not  upon 
the  things  themselves,  but  upon  the  constructions 
which  prejudice  or  passion  may  attach  to  them. 

Surely  if  a  Zuinglian  could  persuade  himself  that 
the  English  Communion  Office  was  founded  upon  the 
basis  of  Zuinglian  ideas,  he  would  act  weakly  and  in- 
consistently should  he  renounce  the  ministry  of  the 
Church  because  he  was  ordered  to  face  eastward 
during  the  prayer  of  consecration ;  and  at  least  as 
surely  would  one  believing  in  the  Catholic  and  primi- 
tive character  of  the  office,  be  open  to  similar  blame 
if  he  in  like  manner  repudiated  his  function  as  a  priest 
upon  being  required  to  take  his  place  on  the  North. 
Preferences  for  the  one  or  the  other  position  it  is  easy 
to  conceive.  To  varying  ideas  of  worship  —  and  in 
these  later  times  the  idea  of  worship  does  materially 
vary  —  the  one  or  the  other  may  seem,  or  may  even 
be,  more  thoroughly  conformable ;  but  strange  indeed, 
in  my  view,  must  be  the  composition  of  the  mind 
which  can  deliberately  judge  that  the  position  at  the 
North  end  is  in  itself  irreverent,  or  that  facing  towards 
the  East  is  in  itself  superstitious.  Both  cannot  be 
right  in  a  dispute,  but  both  may  be  wrong ;  and  one 
of  the  many  ways  in  which  this  comes  about  is  when 
the  thing  contended  for  is,  by  a  common  consent  in 
error,  needlessly  lifted  out  of  the  region  of  things 


WORSHIP.  231 

indifferent  into  that  of   things  essential,  and  a  distinc- 
tion, founded   originally  on   the  phantasy  of  man,   be 
comes  the  articulus  stantis  aut  cadentis  concordia. 

CLXXXVIII. 

They  who  are  powerfully  impressed  with  the  belief 
of  direct  spiritual  influence,  are  apt  to  mistake  for  it 
mere  inward  excitement  of  a  human,  or  sometimes  a 
yet  more  questionable  kind,  if  they  look  for  it  alone, 
and  self-attested  to  the  individual  mind,  and  not  as 
appended  to  divinely-appointed  and  general  ordinances. 
They  render  themselves  the  sole  witness  of  their  own 
accuracy  ;  a  course  which  is  surely  not  according  to 
the  mind  of  Him  who  disclaimed  reliance  on  his  own 
testimony  though  it  was  infallible.  And  they  refer 
the  determination  of  the  question  most  vital  to  our 
spiritual  well-being,  to  the  most  delusive  of  our  facul- 
ties. Suppose  that  they  pray  for  divine  illumination — 
yet  their  very  prayers  may  be  attended  with  so  much 
of  habitual  and  wilful  self-deceit,  that  they  may  serve 
only  to  afford  a  new  plea  to  that  illusion  to  which 
they  thus  may  serve  to  perpetuate.  Great  indeed,  inex- 
pressibly great,  is  the  value  of  that  kind  of  intercourse 
with  God,  which  is  directly  between  him  and  the 
individual  mind  :  but,  in  truth,  its  value  is  heightened 
from  the  circumstance  that  it  is  checked,  and  guarded 


232  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

against  abuse,  by  a  more  independent  witness  of  another 
kind :  and  they  who  most  love  private  prayer  should 
of  all  men,  be  most  thankful  that  God  has  also  at- 
tached grace  to  palpable  ordinances,  whereof  others 
too  are  witnesses,  which  cannot  be  forgotten,  and  which 
are  not  subject  to  be  frustrated  by  our  inward  fluctua- 
tions and  our  inflated  estimate  of  self. 

But  there  is  another  side  to  this  view  of  the  Sacra- 
ments. As  they  are  helps  against  fanaticism,  which 
gives  too  much  credence  to  insufficient  marks  of  spirit- 
ual influence,  so  are  they  powerful  obstructions  to  the 
ingress  of  that  equally  dangerous  despondency,  often 
tending  towards  unbelief,  which  admits  doubts  of  the 
faithfulness  of  God's  promises  into  the  individual 
mind,  and  thus  comes  to  let  slip  the  hope  of  the  gos- 
pel. But  when  such  moods  are  upon  men  (and  they 
are  not  among  the  least  formidable  of  the  temptations 
of  the  Evil  One)  when  a  mist  arises  from  their  internal 
perturbation,  and  intercepts  the  remembrance,  or,  at 
all  events,  the  practical  sense,  of  those  unnumbered 
marks  of  care  and  love  wherewith  God  attends  the 
Christian  along  his  daily  path — is  it  then  no  small 
comfort  to  be  enabled  to  fall  back  on  these  facts,  pal- 
pable as  facts,  and  not  less  pregnant  than  palpable, 
for  they  surely  speak  in  terms  not  to  be  mistaken  of 
the  favor  of  God  towards  our  souls  ?  Thus  they  are 
in  this  sense  like  the  light-house  to  the  seaman,  visible 


WORSHIP.  233 

when  all  other  objects  are  eclipsed,  though  little  heeded 
in  the  abundant  splendor  of  the  day. 

CLXXXIX. 

Why  should  we  not  suffer  the  whole  mind  of  God 
to  take  effect  among  us  ?  He  has,  it  seems,  given  us 
certain  ordinances  as  means  of  grace,  which,  operating 
through  the  active  faculties,  go  to  insure  the  wakeful- 
ness  of  the  intellect,  and  to  carry  it  along  in  the  work 
of  religion.  On  the  other  hand,  to  preclude  its  en- 
croachments, to  repress  pride,  to  sustain  weakness,  to 
refer  us  constantly  and  primarily  to  the  state  of  the 
affections,  to  associate  and  bind  us  together  in  Christ, 
to  manifest  our  entire  dependence  upon  him,  and  our 
high  privilege  in  being  so  dependent,  he  has  instituted 
other  means  of  grace  in  which  we  are  not  at  all, 
strictly  speaking,  co-operators,  but  mere  receivers, 
though  with  certain  preconditions.  Thus  his  mercy 
provides  for  the  entire  nature  of  man  :  and  supplies  us 
with  safe-guards,  if  we  will  but  use  them,  against  the 
opposite  dangers  that  beset  either  theory  of  half-truth — 
that  which  refers  all  grace  to  the  human  understanding 
as  its  channel,  and  that  which,  ascribing  little  or  no 
spiritual  advantage,  as  respects  the  mass  of  Christians, 
to  its  agency,  deals  with  it  insidiously,  as  with  a  hated 
foe,  lulls  it  into  religious  torpor,  and  thereby  prepares 
it  to  become  the  ready  instrument  of  unbelief. 


234  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

cxc. 

Whatever  we  are,  or  have,  or  do,  is  important,  at 
least  is  beneficially  important,  only  in  connexion  with 
the  religious  bearing  of  our  lives.  Every  gift  and  orna- 
ment of  the  human  character  is  either  pernicious,  or 
useless,  or  at  best  fragile  and  unenduring,  unless  it  be 
sanctified  and  stamped  with  permanence  by  a  vital 
union  with  the  spirit  of  religion.  Every  form  of  loveli- 
ness, which  belongs  to  this  world  alone,  must  pass 
away  with  it ;  and  the  beautiful  and  graceful  things 
we  idolize  are  but  like  the  fillets  that  once  bound  the 
temples  of  the  sacrificial  victim,  unless  we  obtain  for 
them  a  passport  to  the  better  world,  by  applying  to 
them  that  perpetuating  power  of  religion,  which,  blend- 
ing these  lighter  with  the  higher  and  holier  qualities, 
rescues  them  from  abuse ;  and,  removing  them  from 
their  dedication  to  the  purposes  of  pride  and  selfish- 
ness, appoints  them  to  serve  God  each  according  to 
its  capacity. 

Thus  from  being  mischievous,  do  temporal  gifts  and 
talents  become  valuable.  They  are  estimated  indeed 
only  at  their  proper  worth,  but  in  that  measure  they 
are  blessed  by  God,  and  acceptable  to  him.  The  com- 
mon tenor  of  daily  life  affords  not  to  the  philosophical 
and  sagacious  mind  alone,  but  to  any  man  who  will 
look  for  them,  continual  occasions  for  the  exercise  of 
duty,  though  often  upon  a  subject  matter  apparently  un- 


RELIGION.  235 

connected  with  it :  purity,  integrity,  courage,  patience, 
diligence,  self-command,  may  be  fed  and  strengthened 
amid  the  humblest  labors  of  each  succeeding  hour, 
though  of  course  it  is  in  the  acts  of  direct-  duty  or 
worship  that  the  mental  powers  and  affections  have 
their  highest  honor  and  reward ;  and  so  the  whole 
circle  of  human  experience  is  chiefly  to  be  viewed 
with  reference  to  its  religious  results.  Our  relations 
toward  God  are  those  which  should  occupy  the  largest 
share  in  our  attention,  as  they  will  exercise  the  most 
determining  influence  on  our  destiny. 

CXCI. 

Secular  history  explains  to  us  much  of  what  con- 
cerns the  bodily  and  temporal  interests  of  man ;  his 
social  position  and  the  results  upon  character  arising  out 
of  it,  much  of  his  experimental  life  in  the  senses,  in 
the  imagination,  in  the  understanding,  and  even  in  the 
affections.  It  ought  to  go,  and  in  right  hands  it  does 
go,  much  farther.  The  true  historian  interprets  and 
combines  its  separate  phenomena,  by  constant  reference 
to  the  central  influence  which  controls  all  the  move- 
ments of  human  nature  ;  the  principle  of  religion.  Yet, 
for  a  long  time,  and  until  very  recently,  the  mind  of 
England  has  been  fed  with  its  knowledge  of  the  past, 
from  works  which  are  altogether  defective  on  this  vital 
subject ;  and  it  will  probably  be  long  before  our  habits 


236  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

are  so  reformed  as  that  we  shall  read  history  only  in 
the  light  of  revelation.  But  what  aspect  of  the  charac- 
ter of  the  creature  is  entitled  to  compete  for  a  moment 
with  that  in  which  he  is  viewed  by  the  Creator  ?  To 
the  rescued  child  of  Adam  what  so  vital  as  the  great 
subject  of  his  redemption  ?  To  the  human  being,  who, 
if  he  is  to  live  permanently,  must  live  by  a  new  life, 
what  matter  the  concerns  and  the  history  of  the 
former  state,  except  in  an  instrumental  and  subordinate 
capacity  ?  We  ought  indeed  to  be  on  our  guard 
against  that  morbid  teaching,  which  inculcates  an  uni- 
versal recoil  from  earthly  objects  as  the  true  law  of 
general  morality;  which  treats  this  life  on  earth  as  if 
it  were  a  mere  accident  of  our  being:  and  perceives 
nothing  but  empty  vision  in  all  its  impressive  and 
pregnant  experience.  On  the  contrary  it  is  an  ordained 
and  necessary  part  of  the  development  of  man  ;  and 
when  its  regulation  is  committed  to  right  laws,  it  is  in 
harmony  much  more  than  in  opposition  to  the  future 
and  untroubled  existence,  which  awaits  the  faithful 
members  of  Christ.  But  still  it  remains  true,  that, 
great  as  is  the  importance  of  our  civil  and  social 
life,  it  is  not  an  essential  but  an  instrumental  import- 
ance ;  it  is  important  for  that  which  it  yields  and 
generates,  not  for  that  which  it  is ;  and  all  its  influ- 
ences are  real  and  of  weight,  only  when  we  take 
into  calculation  something  that  lies  without  it  and 
beyond  it. 


RELIGION.  237 

CXCII. 

Shall  we  wonder  if  the  soul  which  dreads  religion 
and  would  flee  from  it,  which  has  not  yet  thoroughly 
suborned  its  natural  witnesses  within  the  breast  but 
yet  has  imposed  upon  them  a  partial  silence,  and 
lulled  them  into  a  temporary  slumber,  if  such  a  soul, 
feeling  that  its  peace  depends  on  the  prolongation  of 
that  lethargy,  should  shun  with  watchfulness  those 
sounds  by  which  it  might  be  dissipated  ?  In  this  sad 
position,  a  position  occupied,  alas !  by  how  many 
myriads,  every  moment  of  inaction  is  a  step  towards 
the  consummation  of  the  triumph  of  Satan.  God  has 
a  claim  to  our  whole,  existence.  Every  act  which  is 
performed  in  a  state  of  mind  not  recognizing  that 
claim,  is  in  truth  an  act  of  rebellion  against  the 
Almighty,  and  assuredly  goes  to  form  the  habit  of 
alienation  within  us :  as  every  year  during  which 
an  usurper  continues  to  occupy  his  throne,  diminishes 
the  probability  of  the  restoration  of  the  legitimate 
possessor.  Give  therefore  time  to  the  Evil  One,  and 
you  give  him  all  he  requires. 

CXCIII. 

We  are  not  to  dwell  upon  the  mental  processes  which 
composed  the  proof,  upon  the  argumentative  part  of 
religion :  but  upon  the  things  proved :  and  to  carry 


238  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

away  the  eye  from  self  to  the  Redeemer,  accepting  all  as 
his  gift ;  desiring  to  concentrate  the  whole  soul  in  the 
contemplation  of  him,  and  in  an  offering  to  him ;  and 
not  feeling  that  we  in  our  feebleness  have  any  powers 
to  spare  for  a  distinct  self-regard.  Then  we,  as  it  were, 
receive  back  from  him  the  soul  which  we  have  offered 
to  him,  to  be  instrumentally  the  appointed  object  of 
our  care  and  culture  ;  but  he  remains  the  source  and 
the  end  even  of  all  that  labor  which  we  bestow  upon 
our  own  selves,  as  the  portion  of  the  vineyard  primarily 
allotted  to  our  charge. 

CXCIV. 

It  is  true  even  of  every  purely  inward  principle  of 
human  nature,  (as  love,  pity,)  that  it  struggles  for  an 
outward  development  —  and  the  more  strongly  in 
proportion  to  its  own  proper  strength.  It  is  the  law 
of  the  growth  of  man  that  the  acts  which  he  does  shall 
themselves  react  upon,  expand,  confirm,  and  accomplish 
that  constitution  from  which  they  proceeded.  There- 
fore his  internal  principles  expand  themselves  in  acts, 
by  no  vague,  arbitrary  movement,  but  in  order  to  their 
own  increase  and  perfection. 

This  effort  for  external  manifestation  begins  perhaps 
in  strictness,  whenever  the  principle  comes  to  be  placed 
objectively  before  the  conscience.  And  the  interne  1 
principle  is  not  a  loser  by  that  which,  it  seems  to  spend 


RELIGION.  239 

in  external  operation,  but  positively  gains  by  it.  The 
religious  life  is  the  highest  form  of  the  rational  and 
moral  life,  and  therefore,  if  it  be  healthy,  strives  with 
the  greatest  force  for  external  expression,  in  order, 
through  the  medium  of  acts  to  accomplish  and  con- 
summate itself  in  the  resulting  habits,  and  thus  in  the 
general  structure  of  the  character. 

Each  inward  principle  of  human  nature  seeks  for 
expression  in  an  outward,  active  existence,  not  only  for 
its  own  consummation,  but  also  in  order  that  it  may  be 
expansive,  communicative.  We  are  to  bear  one  an- 
other's burdens.  Each  of  us  is  to  care  not  only  for  his 
own  concerns,  but  for  those  also  of  his  brethren.  The 
principle  of  this  care  is  the  same,  whether  it  be  applied 
to  ourselves  or  to  others — "Thou  shalt  love  thy 
neighbor  as  thyself : "  though  the  degree  may  be 
different.  The  subjective  basis  of  this  duty  is  indicated 
by  the  common  and  established  doctrine  that  our 
nature  is  social  and  sympathetic. 

External  development  is  the  necessary  result  of  this 
social  and  sympathetic  law  —  the  essential  condition  of 
its  fullfilment. 

cxcv. 

Together  with  the  experimental  fact  that  there  have 
been  in  each  particular  age  particular  modifications  in 
the  features  of  Christian  creed  and  practice,  we  may 


240  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

perhaps  be  warranted  in  assuming  that  the  age  in  which 
we  live  is  peculiarly  marked  as  a  religious  crisis.  It  is 
distinguished  by  a  spirit  of  inquiry,  not  laborious  but 
superficial,  not  friendly  to  its  subject,  but  sceptical. 
This  is  its  prominent  character  for  evil ;  but,  upon  the 
other  hand,  it  has  also  its  tokens  for  good.  From 
the  same  combination  of  circumstances,  which  has 
engendered  that  spirit  of  jealous  and  querulous  curi- 
osity, has  arisen  a  counteracting  temper  of  earnest  zeal 
against  precipitate  innovation.  We  succeed  a  series  of 
generations  through  which  the  most  valuable  institu- 
tions were  allowed  to  slumber  and  decay.  We  belong 
to  a  generation  apt  to  censure  its  predecessors,  perhaps 
for  the  very  reason  that  we  are  suffering  from  the 
absence  of  that  moral  training  which  we  ought  to  have 
received  from  a  due  and  prudent  use  of  those  institu- 
tions ;  we  are  awakened  by  exciting  events  to  a  keener 
sense  of  the  faculties  within  us  while  a  right  diet  for 
those  faculties  and  the  sobering  influences  of  habit  and 
of  inheritance  are  wanting :  we  are  almost  unanimous 
in  calling  for  something  more  than  the  more  tranquil 
times  and  habits  of  our  immediate  ancestors  required ; 
but  while  some  seek  to  supply  their  need  out  of  the 
resources  which  the  human  understanding  commands, 
others  look  rather  to  a  traditional  than  to  an  ideal 
type,  and  are  deeply  impressed  with  the  conviction  that 
in  the  oldest  way  of  faith  alone  are  truth  and  peace  to 
be  found ;  with  the.  anxiety  to  keep  their  fellow  men 


RELIGION.  241 

within  those  sacred  limits  which  have  been  marked  and 
blessed  by  God  himself,  and  with  the  desire  so  to 
adjust  the  instruments  of  their  labor  as  may  best 
subserve  this  final  purpose. 

Thus  while  the  men  of  this  age  are  divided  principally 
into  two  great  classes  which  divaricate  widely  in  the 
direction  of  their  desires ;  they  nevertheless  have  for 
the  most  part  one  characteristic  in  common.  They  who 
think  that  in  ancient  Christianity  is  to  be  found  the 
great  and  only  conservative  principle  for  modern 
society,  are  likewise  of  the  belief,  that  in  order  to  find 
it  we  must  look  not  to  the  common  and  customary 
opinion  of  the  generation  or  generations  immediately 
preceding  us,  but  to  the  results  of  a  larger  experience  : 
and  especially  to  a  period  of  clearer  and  better  knowl- 
edge, all  whose  fundamental  principles  are  happily 
transmitted  to  us  in  the  treasures  of  Scripture,  as  they 
have  been  attested  by  the  witness  of  the  church. 

They  agree  therefore  with  their  antagonists  in  think- 
ing, that  the  stores  of  the  last  age  are  not  enough  to 
meet  the  wants  of  the  present.  The  great  question 
depending  is,  whether  we  are  to  revert  in  matters  of 
religion  to  older  positions  than  those  which  were 
recently  fashionable,  or  whether  we  are  free  to  con- 
struct at  our  discretion  some  scheme  founded  upon 
novel  principles.  But  upon  either  hypothesis  we  have 
a  great  transition  to  make.  They  who,  with  what  is 
strictly  termed  the  spirit  of  the  age,  wage  war  against 


242  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

religious  doctrine  in  general,  and  they  who  wish  to 
infuse  into  the  prevailing  religious  tone  of  the  last  age 
a  vitality  which  must  be  fetched  from  a  greater  dis- 
tance, are  each  of  them  undertaking  a  great  labor,  are 
each  of  them  experimenting  on  a  large  scale,  though 
with  very  different  guarantees  and  most  opposite 
anticipations,  for  the  one  class  expects  felicity  from 
securing  to  human  will  an  uncontrolled  domination, 
while  the  other  considers  that  it  is  only  to  be  found 
in  a  patient  and  submissive  spirit,  assuming  the  line 
of  an  ancient  and  positive  revelation  as  the  only  com- 
petent guide  of  its  future  progress. 

CXCVI. 

When  a  nation  is  returning  from  one  form  of  relig- 
ious temper  to  another  it  is  not  like  laying  down  some- 
thing from  the  hand  and  taking  another  something  into 
the  hand,  but  it  is  parting  with  that  which  has  become 
a  portion  of  its  very  self,  and  seeking  to  acquire  in  its 
stead  what  is  in  turn  to  be  so  moulded  and  assimilated 
as  to  become  a  portion  of  its  very  self.  The  agent  is 
too  much  mixed  up  with  the  act  to  allow  of  that 
perfect  self-possession  which  is  necessary  for  wise 
exactitude  and  for  immediate  and  entire  success.  Com- 
ing back  to  a  more  vital  and  energetic  religion,  it 
either  comes  while  yet  under  a  portion  of  the  sinister 
influences  attending  the  degenerate  form  from  which 


RELIGION.  243 

it  has  emerged,  or  if  by  some  violent  and  almost  pre- 
ternatural effort  it  has  thrown  them  off,  then  the  mere 
violence  of  that  effort  produces  a  derangement  in 
temper  and  habit  of  another  kind,  so  that  in  all  cases 
of  great  mental  change  we  must  expect  to  find  more 
or  less  of  perturbation  and  consequent  weakness. 

CXCVII. 

You  will  hear  much  to  the  effect  that  the  divisions 
among  Christians  render  it  impossible  to  say  what 
Christianity  is,  and  so  destroy  the  certainty  of  religion. 
But  if  the  divisions  among  Christians  are  remarkable, 
not  less  so  is  their  unity  in  the  great  doctrines  which 
they  hold.  Well  nigh  fifteen  hundred  years  —  years 
of  a  more  sustained  activity  than  the  world  has  ever 
before  seen  —  have  passed  away  since  the  great  con- 
troversies respecting  the  Deity  and  the  Person  of  the 
Redeemer  were,  after  a  long  agony  determined.  As 
before  that  time  in  a  manner  less  defined  but  adequate 
for  their  day,  so  ever  since,  amid  all  chance  and 
change,  more,  aye,  many  more  than  ninety-nine  in 
every  hundred  Christians  have  with  one  will  confessed 
the  deity  and  incarnation  of  our  Lord  as  the  cardinal 
and  central  truths  of  our  religion.  Surely  there  is 
some  comfort  here,  some  sense  of  brotherhood,  some 
glory  in  the  past,  some  hope  for  the  times  that  are  to 
come. 


244  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

It  is  the  opinion  and    boast  of    some  that  man  is 
not  responsible  for  his  belief.     Lord  Brougham  was  at 
one  time  stated  to  have  given  utterance  to  this  opinion, 
whether  truly  I  know  not.     But   this  I  know,  it  was 
my  privilege  to  hear  from    his  own  lips   the  needful 
and  due   limitation   of   that   proposition.     "  Man,"  he 
said,  is  not  responsible   to  man  for  his  belief."     But 
as  before  God  one  and  the  same  law  applies  to  opin- 
ions and  to  acts,  or  rather  to  inward  and  outer  acts, 
for  opinions  are  inward  acts.     Many  a  wrong  opinion 
may  be  guiltless,  because    formed    in    ignorance,  and 
because  that  ignorance  may  not  be  our  fault ;  but  who 
shall   presume    to   say   there  is  no  mercy   for   wrong 
actions  also,  when  they,  too,  have  been  due  to  igno- 
rance, and  that  ignorance  has  not  been  guilty  ?     The 
question  is  not  whether  judgment  and  actions   are  in 
the   same  degree   influenced   by  the   condition   of  the 
moral  motives.     If  it  is  undeniable   that  self-love   and 
passion  have  an  influence  upon  both,  then,  so  far  as 
that  influence  goes,  for  both,  we  must  be  prepared  to 
answer.     Should  we,  in  common   life,  ask  a  body  of 
swindlers  for  an  opinion  upon   swindling,  or  of   gam- 
blers for  an  opinion  upon  gambling,  or  of  misers  upon 
bounty  ?     And  if  in  matters  of  religion  we  allow  pride 
and  perverseness  to  raise  a  cloud  between  us  and  the 
truth,  so  that  we  see  it  not,  the  false  opinion  that  we 
form  is  but  the  index  of   that  perverseness    and  that 
pride,  and   both  for  them,  and  for  it   as  their  offspring 


RELIGION.  245 

we  shall  be  justly  held  responsible.  Who  they  are 
upon  whom  this  responsibility  will  fall  it  is  not  ours 
to  judge.  These  laws  are  given  to  us,  not  to  apply 
presumptuously  to  others,  but  fo  enforce  honestly 
against  ourselves. 

Be  slow  to  stir  inquiries  which  you  do  not  mean 
particularly  to  pursue  to  their  proper  end.  Be  not 
afraid  to  suspend  your  judgment,  or  feel  and  admit 
to  yourselves  how  narrow  are  the  bounds  of  knowl- 
edge. Do  not  too  readily  assume  that  to  us  have 
been  opened  royal  roads  to  truth,  which  were  hereto- 
fore hidden  from  the  whole  family  of  man  :  for  the 
opening  of  such  roads  would  not  be  so  much  favor  as 
caprice.  If  it  is  bad  to  yield  a  blind  submission  to 
authority,  it  is  not  less  an  error  to  deny  to  it  its  rea- 
sonable weight.  Eschewing  a  servile  adherence  to  the 
past,  regard  it  with  reverence  and  gratitude,  and  accept 
its  accumulations  in  inward  as  well  as  outward  things 
as  the  patrimony  which  it  is  your  part  in  life  both  to 
preserve  and  to  improve. 

CXCVIII. 

It  was  a  strong  expression  of  a  certain  writer,  that 
the  soil  of  the  Christian  Church  had  more  vigor  at 
the  time  when  it  was  capable  of  throwing  up  such 
plants  as  the  minds  of  Luther  and  Melancthon  than 
warms  it  at  this  moment.  And  so  I  would  say  of  the 


246  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

darker  periods  of  the  thirteenth  century.  Look  at  the 
minds  of  the  men,  for  example  at  the  mind  of  Dantd, 
which  it  moulded.  Regard  the  comprehensive  grasp 
with  which  he  seized  the  seen  and  the  unseen  world, 
the  entire  range  of  ideas  and  facts,  even  the  possible 
or  imaginary  forms  of  our  future  existence  ;  and  while 
interweaving  typically  with  his  bold  creations  the  great 
events  and  interests  of  his  time,  exhibked  along  with 
a  richness  of  fancy  and  a  depth  of  passion  in  which 
he  had  few  poets  for  his  rivals,  an  understanding  edged 
for  analysis  like  Aristotle,  a  spirit  of  childlike  and 
ecstatic  devotion  like  Augustine  or  Thomas  a  Kempis, 
and  a  strength  of  sublime  intuition,  that  highest  of 
human  faculties,  in  which  he  seems  to  stand  alone. 
Shall  we,  can  we  see  again  any  such  form  and  fashion 
of  a  man  ?  Are  there  the  materials  for  feeling  and 
for  training  such  a  spirit  ?  Among  our  footprints  will 
there  be  found  by  posterity 

"  Una  simile 
Orma  di  pie  mortale?  " 

His  works  are  like  the  huge  spears  and  swords  that 
are  shown  in  some  of  our  old  baronial  castles,  which 
none  can  wield ;  and  if  the  gigantic  physical  stature 
of  ancient  times  be  fabulous,  is  it  equally  untrue  that 
the  higher  ranges  of  intellect,  according  to  the  predic- 
tion of  Lord  Bacon,  have  been  reduced,  and  that  our 
modern  pride  must  begin  to  suspect  and  qualify  some 
of  its  claims  to  superior  excellence  ?  It  may  not  im- 


RELIGION.  247 

probably  be  the  case  that  so  far  as  respects  religion, 
we  are  actually  progressing  in  some  particulars  white 
we  retrogade  in  others.  The  church  may  be  engaged 
in  developing  the  ideas  which  she  possesses,  and  in 
bringing  the  bud  to  flower ;  or  she  may  be,  on  the 
other  hand,  condensing  what  has  been  too  much  rari- 
fied  in  a  heated  atmosphere,  directing  its  power  to  a 
definite  and  palpable  object,  and  seeking,  through 
compression,  to  attain  a  more  energetic  action. 

CXCIX. 

The  truths  of  religion  being  certain  and  unchange- 
able, they  afford  as  unexceptionably  true  a  ground  of 
unity  to  those  who  know  most  as  to  those  who  know 
least,  and  -it  is  the  evil  nature  alone  within  us  which 
has  multiplied  heresies  upon  the  earth  under  pretence 
of  knowledge. 


CC. 


Mankind  have  by  nature  a  sense  of  the  power  of 
God  combined  with  an  alienation  of  the  will  from  him. 
Had  they  the  first  alone,  they  would  of  course  receive 
his  word  as  he  gave  it ;  had  they  the  second  alone, 
they  would  of  course  and  avowedly  reject  it.  But 
under  the  existing  combination  of  these  reciprocally 
counter-working  sentiments,  they  are  for  the  most  part 


248  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

disinclined  either  heartily  to  accept  or  boldly  to  re- 
nounce it ;  and  they  are  apt  accordingly  to  receive  it 
in  form  for  the  satisfaction  of  their  fears,  but  to  evade 
and  neutralize  it  in  substance  to  avoid  the  Sacrifice 
of  their  individual  wills.  Now  this  evasion  and  neu- 
tralization can  best  be  effected  by  the  method  of 
misinterpreting  the  sacred  text  and  thereby  misrepre- 
senting its  commands,  and  thus  getting  rid  of  what- 
ever in  them  is  mortifying  to  human  pride  and  desire, 
or  inventing  compensations  which  revelation  has  not 
really  allowed.  Here,  therefore,  we  have  in  our  view 
a  cause  not  only  of  the  most  malignant,  but  of  the 
most  unceasing  operation.  As  permanent  as  the  force 
of  human  inclination,  is  also  the  bias  towards  heresy, 
towards  the  putting  glosses  upon  the  Word  of  God, 
and  reducing  it  to  the  measure  of  our  own  discretion. 
It  seems  to  follow  that  an  equally  permanent  corrective 
is  required  to  uphold  everywhere  the  faith  in  its  integ- 
rity and  unity  against  the  multiplying  and  fluctuating 
forms  of  error. 

CCI. 

Sympathy  is  a  principle  which  for  the  most  part 
gives  increased  energy  to  action.  When  the  electric 
chain  pervades  the  hearts  of  many,  it  seems  to  render  all 
their  combined  force  available  for  each  individual,  as 
the  momentum  of  a  material  body  composed  of  many 


RELIGION.  249 

parts  would  carry  every  one  of  them,  with  much  greater 
rapidity  and  power  than  they  would  have  possessed  if 
they  had  been  put  in  motion  apart  from  one  another. 
And  thus  we  may  see  how  eloquence  works  its  effects 
on  crowds  much  more  powerfully  than  on  individuals  ; 
and  how  the  most  indifferent  wit  is  sufficient  to 
convulse  a  popular  assembly  with  laughter,  which  if 
obtruded  on  any  one  of  its  component  members  in 
private,  would  either  pass  unnoticed  or  excite  contempt. 
In  this  strength  of  sympathy  is  a  part  of  the  rationale, 
so  to  speak,  of  public  prayer ;  it  husbands  and  multi- 
plies individual  energies  ;  and  the  higher  our  concep- 
tion of  the  church,  the  better  we  shall  be  prepared  to 
estimate  and  to  profit  by  this  great  function. 

ecu. 

A  religious  creed  presented  to  the  mind  for  its 
acceptance  may  be  excluded  from  the  heart  if  so 
be  that  the  imagination,  unduly  predominating  over 
the  mind  of  the  man,  interposes,  and  anticipating  the 
torpid  action  of  the  affections,  meets  that  creed,  views 
it  artistically,  as  it  is  termed,  in  the  manner,  that  is  to 
say,  in  which  a  workman  would  view  a  block  of  marble 
which  he  is  about  to  reduce  to  shape ;  estimates  it 
with  reference  not  to  its  appointed  ends,  but  to  the 
law  of  beauty  and  its  correspondence  therewith,  or 
discrepancy  therefrom. 


250  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

But  the  imagination  is  not  the  only  interceptor  oi 
affections  divinely  destined  to  the  purposes  of  action. 
The  understanding  may  be  excited  simultaneously,  and 
when  set  to  work  in  reasoning  upon  the  relations 
of  any  given  phenomena,  or  upon  reducing  them  into 
a  system,  it  may  thus,  with  speculative  truth  for  its 
end,  be  so  delighted  with  its  own  energies  as  to  lead 
us  into  forgetfulness  of  action.  Thus  it  absorbs  in 
intellectual  exercise  the  strength  that  ought  to  have 
been  spent  in  practical  exertion  ;  and  while  it  seems  to 
be  doing  the  work  of  the  affections  it  diverts  them 
from  their  own  end,  employing  all  the  mental  powers 
in  the  verification  of  terms  instead  of  the  execution  of 
acts,  and  then  applying  them  to  its  own  work  of  classi- 
fying, comparing,  concluding,  or  otherwise  as  the  case 
may  be.  Thus  again,  when  a  religious  creed  is  pre- 
sented, say  to  a  disputatious  and  subtle  mind,  in  which 
the  action  of  the  critical  faculty  overbears  and  absorbs 
all  other  energies,  that  faculty  regards  the  creed  pro- 
posed polemically,  considers  it  with  reference  to  logical 
and  technical  precision,  and  not  in  respect  to  its  moral 
characteristics  and  tendencies,  and  wastes  upon  this 
theoretic  han/lling  of  sacred  themes  all  the  sedulity 
which  ought  to  be  employed  in  seeking  to  give  effect 
to  the  proffered  means  of  spiritual  amelioration. 

If  the  understanding  is  neither  able  to  dispense  with 
the  aid  of  the  affections,  nor  in  itself  sufficient  to  stim- 
ulate them  for  the  purposes  of  practice — if  it  be  so 


RELIGION.  251 

far  from  this  that  it  may,  on  the  contrary,  often 
become  their  hinderer  —  then  we  cannot  fail  to  see 
the  religious  importance  of  having  some  avenues  to 
the  affections  otherwise  than  through  argumentative 
methods,  and  with  an  intervention  of  intellectual  powers 
as  slight  as  can  possibly  be,  in  order  that  of  several 
fallible  processes,  each  one  may  help  to  supply  the 
defects  or  retrieve  the  errors  of  the  others. 

CCIII. 

Your  wish  is  to  lead  a  Me  that  is  manful,  modest, 
truthful,  active,  diligent,  generous,  humble :  take  for 
your  motto  these  wonderful  words  of  the  apostle 
where  he  says,  "  Whatsoever  things  are  true,  whatsoever 
things  are  honest,  whatsoever  things  are  pure,  what- 
soever things  are  lovely,  whatsoever  things  are  of  good 
report "  —  everything  that  is  good  is  to  be  within  your 
view,  and  nothing  that  is  not  good.  I  am  certain  that 
if  you  cherish  those  virtues  you  will  never  forget  the 
basis  of  them,  you  will  never  forget  where  lies  their 
root.  I  do  not  mean  that  you  are  continually  to  be 
parading  your  religious  feelings  and  convictions.  These 
are  very  deep  and  solemn  subjects,  and  will  grow  in  the 
shade  rather  than  in  the  sunlight.  Let  them  ever  be  in 
your  minds,  as  they  are  indigenous  to  the  root  of  every 
excellence.  Whatever  you  aspire  to,  aspire  above  all 
to  be  Christians  and  to  Christian  perfection. 


252  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

CCIV. 

The  grand  and  ruling  influences  through  which  we 
are  capable  of  being  led  towards  religion,  are  the  fear  of 
punishment,  the  desire  of  enjoyment,  the  love  of  good- 
ness. Let  us  consider  how  far  each  of  these  influences 
is  made  effective  through  the  sole  action  of  the  under- 
standing, and  how  far  by  the  supply  of  impressions 
from  the  affections  which  are  human,  and  how  far 
through  those  which  are  themselves  derivable  only  from 
a  divine  influence. 

Now  the  fear  of  punishment,  in  the  gross  or  in  the 
detail,  may  doubtless  be  made  operative  through  our 
human  affections,  which  recoil  from  pain  as  such,  and 
with  a  consciousness  of  its  general  nature;  aided  by 
the  understanding,  which  supplies  the  notion  of  power 
on  the  part  of  the  Deity  to  make  that  punishment 
sensible  and  effective ;  but  this  fear  of  punishment  is 
no  genuine  religion  —  it  is  no  more  than  a  still  distant 
stage  on  the  road  to  it;  and  as  it  may  be  felt  without 
spiritual  influence,  so  we  have  further  to  remember  that 
it  may  be  entirely  overborne  and  nullified  by  the  force 
of  the  temptations  which  it  attempts  to  resist.  There 
remains  therefore  a  lack  that  requires  to  be  supplied. 
But  even  for  this  partial  influence  the  understanding 
alone  is  insufficient:  it  depends,  in  part,  upon  that 
apprehension  of  punishment  which  our  natural  suscepti- 
bilities, and  not  the  proper  energies  of  the  understand- 


RELIGION.  253 

ing,  supply :  and  therefore  an  argument  may  be  drawn 
from  this  quarter,  not  perhaps  strictly  for  the  necessity 
of  spiritual  grace,  but  at  all  events  against  the  suf- 
ficiency and  so  the  sole  jurisdiction  of  the  under- 
standing. 

The  desire  of  enjoyment,  in  the  gross,  may  be  im- 
pressed through  the  same  human  means :  the  first,  of 
affection  and  understanding  at  work  jointly ;  the  sec- 
ond, of  understanding  alone.  But  as  we  go  into  detail, 
and  come  to  inquire  after  any  intimation  of  the  nature 
of  proposed  enjoyment  which  the  gospel  offers,  our 
human  faculties  fail  us  because  we  infer  —  as  far  as  we 
can  infer  at  all  —  that  it  is  such  as  our  human  faculties 
cannot  receive  or  appreciate,  but  would  even  be  inclined 
of  themselves  to  reject.  We  therefore  need,  in  order 
to  feel  the  full  force  of  a  view  of  heaven  offered  to  us, 
to  have  an  affection  towards  God  of  veneration,  love, 
and  trust,  which  our  corruption  has  absorbed.  This 
then  is  from  a  divine  source  :  so  that  we  now  need  not 
only  the  understanding  and  the  affections,  but  likewise 
renewed  affections  to  initiate  the  truly  religious  prin- 
ciple ;  and  we  accordingly  see  with  much  more  strength 
and  clearness  the  need  of  a  divine  operation  other  than 
that  which  the  understanding  carries,  in  order  to  set 
the  understanding  itself  in  motion  towards  God. 

Thirdly,  as  regards  the  love  of  goodness  for  its  own 
sake.  For  this  we  must  be  able  to  recognize  the  divine 
will  as  good  in  itself,  and  as  determining  what  is  good 


254  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

in  itself,  and  as  determining  what  is  good  for  us,  inde- 
pently  of,  or  in  opposition  to,  any  estimate  of  our  own. 
It  is  clear  that  this  love,  fixed  on  goodness  as  an  end, 
and  viewing  goodness  as  embodied  in,  and  as  measured 
and  tested  by  the  will  of  God,  is  the  adoption  of  an 
entirely  new  standard,  of  which  our  fallen  state  sup- 
plies none  of  the  elements  ;  and  the  primary  concep- 
tion of  the  object,  as  it  is  an  object  of  affection,  must 
be  in  the  affections,  antecedent  to  any  action  of  the 
understanding  which  acts  only  upon  what  is  already 
conceived.  It  must  therefore,  in  its  earliest  begin- 
nings, under  the  strictest  necessity,  come  from  a  divine 
influence,  and  not  through  the  understanding. 

ccv. 

The  ship  retains  her  anchorage  yet  drifts  with  a 
certain  range,  subject  to  the  wind  and  tide.  So  we 
have  for  an  anchorage  the  cardinal  truths  of  the  gospel. 
The  progress  of  truth  through  the  character  is  slow, 
and  requires  time  for  its  full  establishment,  long  after 
it  has  been  sincerely  and  vitally  received.  It  is  a 
task  of  common  interest,  to  learn  better  the  lesson  we 
must  all  feel  that  we  have  so  imperfectly  acquired 
namely,  that  which  shows  how  we  may  least  inade- 
quately fulfil  all  the  conditions  of  that  blessed  and 
glorious  life  which  we  have  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  how 


RELIGION.  255 

most  effectually  oppose  its  powers  to  the  powers  of 
the  fallen  and  evil  life  that  belongs  to  our  own 
selves. 

CCVI. 

To  remove  from  the  face  of  the  truth  whatever 
may  have  sullied  or  obscured  it,  to  repel  assaults  upon 
its  purity  and  integrity,  to  illustrate  and  make  it 
known,  and  to  adapt  and  prepare  the  minds  of  men, 
by  the  means  which  itself  supplies  for  its  reception, 
these  are  objects  of  religious  reform ;  and  when,  in- 
stead of  imagining  to  ourselves  a  modern  revelation  of 
which  we  are  the  favored  subjects,  we  desire  simply  a 
recurrence  to  the  old  truth  of  the  gospel  in  the  old 
spirit  of  the  gospel,  we  check  the  exorbitance  of  selfish 
pride  by  placing  between  ourselves  and  the  divinity 
an  instrumental  agency  independent  of  ourselves ; 
while  it  still  remains  true,  that  for  the  very  percep- 
tion of  the  existing  defects,  and  of  any  means  for  their 
removal,  we  must  refer  entirely  and  alone  to  God. 

CCVII. 

We  need  not  fear  that  an  ample  discharge  of  one 
branch  of  duty  should  encroach  upon  another. 

Each  of  our  natural  members  has  offices  to  per- 
form for  itself,  has  contrivances  for  feeding  itself, 
besides  being  evidently  fitted  and  intended  to  dis- 


256  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT, 

charge  certain  functions  on  behalf  of  the  body.  Now, 
its  exercise  in  those  functions,  within  the  limits  of 
nature,  does  not  hinder  but  promotes  its  own  particular 
health  and  growth.  The  leg,  for  example,  of  a  man 
who  walks  much,  the  arm  of  one  who  labors  with  the 
spade,  draw  an  increase  of  strength  to  themselves 
from  performing  offices  not  undertaken  on  their  own 
account,  but  wherein  they  serve  as  the  instruments  of 
the  entire  body,  while  it  is  a  central  principle  that 
carries  into  outward  and  physical  effect  the  resolutions 
of  the  mind.  And  surely  so  it  is  with  our  spiritual 
position  in  the  body  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Surely 
here,  as  in  the  natural  form,  the  operations  of  a  man 
are  intended  to  be  performed,  not  in  the  contemplation 
of  his  own  narrow  self  as  an  end,  but  of  an  end 
which  is  extrinsic  to  him  and  of  far  larger  scope. 
Just  so  we  see  that  every  act  of  benevolence  loses 
the  flower  of  its  purity  when  reflection  on  any  benefit 
that  may  result  to  the  agent  is  intermixed  with  its 
composition  and  execution  — 

"  It  is  the  battle,  not  the  prize, 
That  fills  the  hero's  breast,  with  joy." 

It  is  the  mercy,  not  the  ensuing  and  rewarding  peace, 
which  animates  the  heart  of  the  merciful.  And  yet 
the  benefit,  though  uncontemplated,  will  come  if  the 
act  be  done  aright  —  it  is  not  sacrificed  by  being  put 
out  of  view. 


RELIGION.  257 

CCVIII. 

The  whole  scheme  of  Christianity  is  pervaded  and 
distinguished  from  every  other  religion,  including  even 
its  revealed  forerunners,  the  patriarchal  and  Jewish 
dispensations,  by  that  mystical  character,  that  combi- 
nation of  a  body  with  a  soul,  of  the  outward  sign 
with  the  inward  grace,  which  brings  it  into  such  per- 
fect and  comprehensive  harmony  with  the  mixed  nature 
of  man  as  both  a  material  and  an  immaterial  being. 
It  is  the  living  and  life-giving  energy  of  the  Spirit  of 
God,  which  animates  the  whole  body  of  the  Redeemer, 
and  moves  it  according  to  his  will,  in  all  the  forms 
prescribed  for  its  exercise  and  development.  Nothing 
can  be  more  profoundly  solemn  than  the  belief,  still 
shared,  thanks  be  to  God,  by  nearly  all  who  bear  the 
name  of  Christ,  that  the  motions  of  this  Divine  Spirit 
wait  in  some  special  sense  on  certain  functions  of 
religion,  discharged  by  man  at  his  own  discretion,  like 
other  acts  of  his  common  life. 

CCIX. 

The  war  of  faith  with  scepticism  becomes  continu- 
ally hotter  and  fiercer ;  the  complaint  of  things  trans- 
itory against  things  durable  waxes  louder,  and  the 
testimony  of  things  durable  to  the  fixed  polar  truths 
on  which  they  at  once  rest  and  act,  grows  clearer  and 


258  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

steadier  from  day  to  day.  If  all  the  bonds  of  human 
obediences  are  in  progressive  relaxation,  yet  the  prin- 
ciple of  divine  obedience  gains  in  vigor  and  in  influ- 
ence. If  the  time  be  more  crooked  and  perverse  than 
ever,  yet  we  are  manifestly  on  the  way  to  simplicity. 
We  are  as  when  a  company  that  has  halted  for  refresh- 
ment prepares  to  march  ;  the  eater  and  the  sleeper 
rise  from  their  easy  couch  upon  the  sward,  and  amidst 
the  general  hum  and  stir  no  law  or  tendency  to  order 
can  be  discerned  ;  but  after  a  little,  each  will  fall  into 
place,  and  the  whole  will  be  prepared  for  regular  and 
simultaneous  movement.  Thus  it  is  with  society  in 
this  our  day.  Many  a  seed  has  sunk  into  the  soil  and 
lain  inorganic  for  a  time,  waiting  the  shower  and  the 
sun.  But  at  some  instant,  under  some  combination 
of  causes  too  subtle  and  too  comprehensive  for  human 
analysis,  the  dormant  instincts  begin  to  move ;  and 
though  at  first  blindly  groping  their  way  underground, 
they  gather  themselves  by  degrees  into  masses,  and 
these  masses  again  unite  in  a  larger  mass,  until  at 
length  they  are  such  that  in  their  collision  they  shall 
shake  the  world.  Happy  indeed  is  he  who  shall  be 
found  prepared  in  that  day,  and  happy  the  humblest 
of  men,  who,  with  sincere  intent,  shall  have  con- 
tributed in  the  very  least  degree  towards  such  prep- 
aration. 

And  if,  however  encumbered  with  unconscious  preju- 
dice, we  keep  the  beacon-light  steadily  in  our  view,  we 


RELIGION.  259 

may  always  take  'comfort  in  the  midst  of  our  labor. 
We  may  remember  first  how  much  of  the  misappre- 
hension which  gives  occasion  to  wrath  may  fairly 
be  ascribed  to  ourselves,  and  next  that  all  collisions, 
whether  in  speculation  or  in  practical  life,  are  actually 
and  effectively  working  together  for  the  ultimate  and 
permanent  establishment  of  truth :  of  truth,  in  whose 
train  unity  and  peace  are  inevitably  found  ;  of  truth, 
whose  prevalence  we  ought  first  and  most  of  all  to 
desire,  not  in  the  aspect  which  she  wears  to  us, 
not  in  this  or  that  specific  dress  which  receives  its 
color  or  figure  from  the  contemplating  fancy,  but  for 
her  own  sake  as  such,  and  in  her  own  substance  as 
such.  And  we  are  bound  to  love  that  substance  which 
as  yet  we  see  but  variably,  dimly,  and  remotely,  that 
as  yet  undeveloped  substance,  with  an  affection  higher 
and  more  absolute  than  we  yield  to  any  of  our  own 
subjective  impressions  received  from  the  everlasting 
seal ;  as  when  sailors,  weary  of  the  main,  are  hastening 
together  towards  a  common  home,  which  they  know  to 
be  a  home,  and  to  be  common,  and  one  may  with 
straining  eyes  conceive  that  he  beholds  it  at  one  point 
of  the  compass,  and  another  dreams  that  elsewhere  he 
sees  it  breaking  the  even  line  of  the  horizon  ;  but  the 
love  and  the  desire  of  each  are  fastened  not  upon  the 
image  scarce  conjectured,  but  upon  the  reality  which 
that  image  is  taken  to  denote.  So  that,  wherever  we 
can  enjoy  the  full  and  firm  conviction  that  others  with 


260  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

whom  we  are  in  apparent  conflict  are  truly  searching 
for  the  same  object  as  that  to  which  we  have  given 
ourselves,  their  labors,  although  in  their  first  direction 
adverse  to  our  own,  ought  to  be,  and  in  a  true  though 
a  restricted  sense  may  be,  even  here  and  now,  a  bond 
of  inward  union  between  us. 

ccx. 

* 

That  which  we  familiarly  call  the  history  of  men,  is 
not  their  history.  It  is  a  part  indeed  of  their  history, 
but  not  the'  most  important  and  essential  part.  We 
should  think  it  strange,  and  might  be  tempted  to  com- 
plain of  it  as  either  a  gross  error  or  a  fraud,  if  an 
account  of  some  of  the  less  important  classes  of  mate- 
rial objects  should  monopolize  or  even  assume  the 
title  of  natural  history.  It  is  not  less  at  variance  with 
the  true  nature  of  things,  though  more  in  conformity 
with  our  habitual  but  erroneous  conceptions,  that  rela- 
tions, which  are  only  secondary  with  respect  to  the 
most  momentous  interests  of  man,  and  the  highest  parts 
of  his  nature,  should,  by  a  semblance  of  common  con- 
sent, be  considered  the  history  of  man.  There  is  fraud 
in  this  case,  but  the  fraud  is  in  ourselves,  in  each  of 
us,  in  the  deprivation  of  the  inward  eye,  which  misrep- 
resents the  comparative  magnitude  of  objects,  and 
gives  to  the  things  which  are  seen,  a  greater  import- 
ance than  to  those  which  are  not  seen. 


HISTORY.  261 

CCXI. 

As  secular  history  will  in  the  natural  course  of  things 
be  g  ithered  from  contemporary  observations,  first  re- 
corded with  the  advantages  of  proximity,  and  then 
reduced  into  order  with  those  of  comprehensive 
and  impartial  contemplation  :  so,  in  the  history  of  re- 
ligion, we  ought  to  consider  not  only  the  records  of 
the  past,  with  which  our  concern  is  comparatively 
remote,  but  also  those  peculiarities  and  variations 
which  are  actually  beneath  our  eye,  which  belong  to 
the  circumstances  and  persons  of  our  own  time,  and 
by  which  perhaps  in  more  than  trifling  particulars  the 
forms  of  our  own  belief,  and  thus  of  our  own  char- 
acter, are  determined.  And  the  habit  of  observation 
which  should  arrest  and  embody  some  of  the  religious 
characteristics  of  the  period  as  they  rise  or  ripen,  or 
decline,  and  the  pen  which  should  record  them  with 
fidelity,  might  be  found  to  render  useful  service  to 
truth. 

CCXII. 

We  all  know  how  much  has  been  done  in  the 
researches  of  our  time  by  applying  the  principle  of 
comparison  —  comparison,  for  example,  of  the  struc- 
ture of  living  bodies  as  the  basis  of  modern  biology, 
the  comparison  of  the  structures  of  languages  as  the 
basis  of  philology.  Depend  upon  it,  then,  that  the 


262  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

observation  and  analogy  which  natural  history  is  con- 
tinually suggesting,  as  it  is  valuable  for  the  purposes 
of  science,  so  it  has  a  lighter  but  a  most  graceful  and 
civilizing  use  in  supplying  those  analogies  taken  from 
the  seen  world  and  applicable  to  the  unseen,  assisting 
in  giving  to  every  work  of  the  mind  that  grace  and 
beauty,  which  is  just  as  appropriate  and  desirable, 
though  it  may  not  be  so  indispensable  to  it,  as  are 
the  higher  qualities  of  solidity  and  truth. 

CCXIII. 

Religious  truth  is  the  basis  and  groundwork  of 
charity.  The  apostle  did  not  preach  to  the  heathen, 
as  first  in  order,  that  they  should  love  one  another, 
but  that  they  should  repent  towards  God,  and  believe 
in  Christ.  Why?  We  may  with  reverence  reply, 
because  the  heart  of  man  is  in  great  part  averse  to 
the  law  of  mutual  love ;  because  proclamation  of  that 
law,  without  the  specific  means  for  procuring  obedi- 
ence to  it,  would  be  a  mockery,  a  cruel  and  dangerous 
delusion ;  because  by  this  men  would  then  have 
seemed,  as  they  now  too  often  seem,  to  themselves,  to 
be  as  it  were  fulfilling  by  anticipation  the  law  of  Christ, 
through  a  way  which  is  shorter  as  well  as  more  excel- 
lent ;  for  the  beautiful  lessons  of  charity  come  smoothly 
from  the  tongue,  and  melodiously  to  the  ear,  even 
when  they  are  employed  as  words  alone,  or  as  coverts 


CHARITY.  263 

to  facilitate  the  prosecution  of  irreligious  designs  ;  and 
men  thus  arraying  themselves  in  borrowed  splendors 
grow  persuaded  that  they  are  their  own  ;  they  talk  of 
charity  until  they  come  to  believe  that  it  has  really 
pervaded  their  souls,  and  has  become  their  ruling 
sentiment,  although  that  sentiment  has  taught  them  to 
depreciate  the  doctrines  of  the  faith  which  is  the 
ground  of  all  charity.  Great  is  the  error  of  those 
who  depreciate  love,  the  end  of  the  commandment : 
but  what  avails  the  recognition  of  the  end,  if  we  wil- 
fully set  aside  the  faith,  the  divinely  ordained  and  the 
exclusively  effectual  means  ? 

CCXIV. 

To  encourage  a  brotherly  feeling  towards  those  with 
whom  we  differ,  we  must  remember  that  we  may  be 
inwardly  united  while  we  are  outwardly  in  conflict ; 
and  on  the  other  hand,  to  exclude  the  poison  of  indif- 
ferentism,  we  must  remember  that  for  the  purposes  of 
duty,  the  partial  truth  we  possess,  imposes  upon  us 
as  real  and  valid  obligations,  as  the  universal  truth 
we  hope  one  day  to  enjoy.  In  the  harmony  of  these 
two  principles  lies  the  secret  of  the  peace  of  mankind, 
and  in  a  certain,  even  if  a  distant,  future  is  folded  up 
the  day  when  that  secret  shall  be  fully  and  universally 
revealed. 


264  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

ccxv. 

Charity,  if  it  be  real,  forbids  us  to  divide  ourselves 
from  our  brethren  upon  matters  of  private  or  equivocal 
opinion,  or  to  confound  such  matter  with  matter  of 
faith,  and  utterly  forbids  the  needless  multiplication 
of  conditions  of  communion  \  but  she  does  not  forbid  — 
no,  she  urges  and  commands  —  a  diligent  search  for 
the  faith  of  Christ  in  its  completeness,  and  for  the 
Church  of  Christ  in  its  essential  inherent  conditions ; 
and  this  for  the  very  purpose  of  insuring  and  perpetua- 
ting obedience  to  the  law  of  brotherly  love,  which  then 
only  can  become  acceptable  to  the  human  heart  when 
it  is  possessed  with  the  doctrines  of  Christ  and  the 
influences  of  his  spirit,  because  they  alone  so  modify 
the  human  heart,  as  to  bring  it  into  intrinsic  accordance 
with  that  law. 

CCXVI. 

We  hear  much  ot  the  decay  of  Christian  liberality 
since  the  period  of  the  Reformation  and  in  England  it 
has  been  grievious.  It  has  been  stated  in  Parliament, 
though  I  have  not  been  able  to  learn  on  what  authority, 
that  there  were  in  England  three  hundred  years  ago, 
between  Parish  churches  and  minor  edifices,  not  less 
than  ninety-seven  thousand  places  of  worship.  At 
least  we  know  there  were  churches  enough,  and 


CHARITY.  265 

more  than  barely  enough  for  the  Christian  flocks,  while 
hundreds  of  thousands  now  are  as  sheep  wandering 
on  the  hills,  and  without  a  shepherd.  But  let  us 
inquire  whether  there  has  not  been  an  at  least 
corresponding  decay  of  pious  munificence  in  Roman 
Catholic  countries.  The  stream  of  religious  endow- 
ment has  not  lately  flowed,  I  apprehend,  in  France 
or  Italy,  in  Austria  or  the  Peninsula,  as  it  did  during 
the  middle  ages.  On  the  contrary,  we  may  look  long 
and  almost  in  vain  for  the  benefactions  of  the  last 
three  hundred  years.  The  unfinished  churches  in  Italy 
in  particular,  seem  to  show  almost  throughout  that 
peninsula  that  the  spirit  of  munificence  and  faith  in 
which  many  great  works  were  begun,  decayed  so  rap- 
idly as  to  prevent  their  completion.  At  least  it  is  very 
safe  to  challenge  a  comparison  between  England  and 
any  of  the  continental  countries  on  this  score. 

The  Reformation  did  not  in  England  freeze  or  check 
the  generosity  of  the  children  of  the  church,  whatever 
scope  it  gave  to  the  rapacious  avarice  of  the  great. 
Nearly  the  whole  of  the  professorships  in  the  Uni- 
versities both  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge  have  been 
founded  since  the  Reformation ;  and  in  Cambridge  it 
appears  that  not  one-fourth  of  the  entire  endowments 
are  held  in  right  of  any  Roman  Catholic  benefaction : 
nor  is  there  any  reason  to  suppose  that  the  proportion 
is  materially  different  at  Oxford ;  while  Dublin  derives 
its  entire  possessions  from  the  same  period.  It  is  true 


266  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

indeed  that  the  channel  of  pious  and  thankful  bounty 
was  altered,  and  with  sufficient  reason.  The  provision 
for  public  worship  and  the  maintenance  of  a  clergy  was 
already  redundant ;  while  that  for  the  education  of  the 
young  in  such  a  knowledge  of  Christianity  as  befitted 
their  rational  faculties,  was  extremely  in  arrear.  Ac- 
cordingly that  which  had  been  nobly  done  by  William 
of  Wykham,  by  Henry  the  Sixth,  by  Dean  Colet,  was 
imitated,  not  only  by  Edward  the  Sixth  and  by  Eliza- 
beth, but  by  their  subjects  in  immense  numbers ;  and 
the  splendid  endowments  of  the  grammar-schools  of 
England  attest  the  liberality  of  the  children  of  the 
church  during  the  latter  part  of  the  sixteenth  and  the 
whole  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Besides  these, 
there  were  immense  endowments  for  the  relief  of  the 
poor,  by  foundations  of  hospitals  and  almshouses, 
which  may  also  be  employed  in  illustration  of  this 
argument.  Of  the  present  there  is  indeed  little  to  be 
said,  except  that  it  has  afforded  some  brilliant  ex- 
amples, and  gives  hope  for  the  future.  Has  Christian 
charity,  however,  been  more  lively;  upon  the  whole, 
during  this  period,  among  our  continental  neighbors  ? 

CCXVII. 

It  is  not  in  the  nature  of  things,  alas  !  that  all  truths 
should  be  felt  alike  by  all  persons  and  at  all  times. 
Now,  even  suppose  a  man  assumes,  and  it  is  the 


CHARITY.  267 

greatest  assumption  any  man  has  a  right  to  make,  that 
he  is  in  advance  of  some  among  his  brethren  in  his 
apprehension  of  some  particular  truths,  and  that  see- 
ing their  outlines  and  their  complexion  more  clearly, 
and  himself  more  satisfactorily,  he  is  desirous  of  leading 
others  to  partake  the  benefit :  it  is  quite  manifest  that 
such  a  conception  is  not  the  introduction  of  new  but 
the  development  of  old  and  perhaps  suppressed  prin- 
ciples ;  and  that  he  draws  them  from  a  fountain-head 
common  to  his  brethren  with  himself;  his  object  there- 
fore, must  be  to  induce  them  to  draw  the  same  comfort 
from  the  same  source ;  but  if,  instead  of  that,  he 
either  wilfully  attempts  or  acts  consciously  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  drive  them  to  another  communion,  then, 
indeed,  he  must  raise  a  suspicion  of  his  temper  if  not 
his  motives ;  and  he  proceeds  in  a  mode  not  less  out 
of  conformity  with  logical  consistency,  than  with  the 
spirit  of  Christian  brotherhood. 

CCXVIII. 

Unity  of  opinion  upon  the  numerous  and  continu- 
ally multiplying  points  that  are  opened  by  an  inspec- 
tion of  Christian  doctrine,  though  good  and  desirable, 
is  very  hard,  considering  the  differences  of  our  mental 
constitutions,  to  maintain ;  and  further,  so  that  the 
opinion  be  not  contumacious,  nor  touch  the  declared 
foundation  of  religion,  we  know  not  that  it  is  abso- 


268  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

lutely  requisite.  But  yet  it  is  desirable  to  be  always 
approximating  to  it,  or  rather  it  is  desirable  to  set  in 
action  some  countervailing  power,  which  may  neutral- 
ize the  perpetual  tendency  to  creation  of  new  differ- 
ences from  the  new  combinations  into  which  human 
thought  is.  perpetually  thrown.  In  short,  varieties  of 
theological  opinion,  though  tolerable  within  certain 
limits,  are  false  beyond  those  limits,  and  are  always 
dangerous  on  account  of  their  tendency  to  overstep  the 
boundary  ;  and  as  they  have  a  self-multiplying  and  self- 
extending  principle  in  themselves,  so  they  absolutely 
call  for  strong  moral  checks  upon  this  tendency  by 
way  of  security. 

CCXIX. 

Amidst  the  divisions  of  Christendom  it  has  rarely 
happened,  that  titles,  in  themselves,  conveying  a  re- 
proach or  slur,  have  been  fastened  upon  any  partic- 
ular section.  Human  malevolence  finds  a  sufficient 
scope  in  the  invidious  and  oblique  application  of 
appellatives  good  in  their  first  intention.  And  any- 
thing that  tends  to  the  introduction  of  the  practice  of 
calling  names,  and  especially  of  embodying  vitupera- 
tion in  popular  phrases  meant  for  popular  use,  should 
be  discountenanced,  as  we  think,  by  sober-minded  and 
Christian-minded  men. 


CHARITY.  269 

ccxx. 

The  only  way  to  cure  mistrust  is  by  showing  that 
trust,  if  given,  would  not  be  misplaced,  would  not  be 
betrayed.  By  its  own  nature  it  is  spontaneous,  and 
not  subject  to  brute  force ;  in  order  to  be  enjoyed,  it 
must  be  soothed,  and  won. 

CCXXI. 

Differences  of  judgment  do  not  always  impair  moral 
and  religious  harmony.  It  is  when  the  conflicting  prop- 
ositions are  each  held  as  matters  of  divine  authority 
and  essential  importance,  or  as  what  is  termed  by  theo- 
logians, in  a  solemn  and  peculiar  sense,  matter  of 
faith.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  most  desirable 
for  the  sake  of  Christian  brotherhood  and  peace,  that 
nothing  should  be  so  held  except  what,  according  to 
such  evidence  as  our  human  condition  requires,  really 
is  so  :  because  every  one  of  the  mere  -opinions  which 
heat,  rashness,  or  ignorance  would  add  to  the  canon 
of  faith,  becomes  a  new  cause  of  needless  wrath,  and 
needless  wrath  is  not  pain  only,  but  also  sin.  Since, 
therefore,  such  fatal  evils  result  from  confounding  the 
province  of  proper  belief  with  that  of  opinion,  from 
the  encroachment  of  the  second  on  the  first  shipwreck 
of  that  faith,  and  from  the  encroachment  of  the  first 
on  the  second  breach  of  charity,  how  can  we  exa^er- 


270  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

ate  the  moral  value  in  this  point  of  view,  of  a  system 
which  should  afford  us  an  adequate  criterion  to  distin- 
guish the  one  from  the  other. 

CCXXII. 

What  is  more  a  bond  of  union  among-  Christians 
than  belief  in  the  Holy  Trinity?  And  yet  how  small 
is  our  knowledge  of  the  essence  of  that  doctrine  ! 
Many  properties  indeed  we  are  authorized  to  predicate 
concerning  it,  and  there  is  much  that  we  are  likewise 
enjoined  to  deny;  but  of  its  full  meaning,  how  small 
a  portion,  so  far  as  we  are  qualified  to  discern  the 
limits  of  our  knowledge,  has  been  placed  within  the 
scope  of  our  knowledge !  Believing,  however,  in  that 
which  is  revealed,  we  likewise  know  that  however 
much  may  remain  unrevealed,  yet  if  the  day  come 
when  there  shall  be  a  further  illumination  in  a  better 
world,  those  who  may  attain  thither  will  be  led  and 
bound  to  accept  all  that  additional  knowledge  of  which 
they  are  as  yet  unconscious  ;  and  even  here,  as  know- 
ing the  immutability  of  truth,  and  as  taking  the  future 
cheerfully  upon  trust  from  the  benignant  providence 
of  God,  they  feel  themselves  united  by  anticipation 
in  that  which  they  know  not,  because  it  is  truly  and 
inseparably  attached  to  that  which  they  know.  We 
stand,  then,  as  it  seems,  in  the  way  of  God's  ordinances 
as  regards  this  matter ;  obeying  what  we  clearly  see, 


SLAVERY.  271 

waiting  and  laboring  that  he  may  realize,  in  his  wis- 
dom, all  that  yet  lacks  to  our  full  and  intelligent 
harmony  in  point  of  truth,  as  well  as  to  our  perfect 
holiness  in  point  of  practice ;  and  finding  alike  in  our 
present  position  and  our  past  history,  admonitions  not 
only  to  love  one  another,  but  to  love  as  brethren. 

» 

CCXXIII. 

As  freedom  can  never  be  effectually  established  by 
the  adversaries  of  that  gospel  which  has  first  made  it  a 
reality  for  all  orders  and  degrees  of  men,  so  the  gospel 
never  can  be  effectually  defended  by  a  policy  which 
declines  to  acknowledge  the  high  place  assigned  to 
liberty  in  the  counsels  of  Providence,  and  which,  upon 
the  pretext  of  the  abuse  that  like  every  other  good  she 
suffers,  expels  her  from  its  system.  Among  the  many 
noble  thoughts  of  Homer,  there  is  not  one  more  noble 
or  more  penetrating  than  his  judgment  upon  slavery. 

"  On  the  day,"  he  says  : 

"  That  makes  a  bondman  of  the  free, 
Wide  seeing  Zeus  takes  half  the  man  away." 

He  thus  judges  not  because  the  slavery  of  his  time 
was  cruel  —  for  evidently  it  was  not  —  but  because  it 
was  slavery.  What  he  said  against  servitude  in  the 
social  order,  we  may  plead  against  Vaticanism  in  the 
spiritual  sphere ;  and  no  cloud  of  incense  which  zeal 


272  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

or  flattery,  or  even   love,   can  raise,  should  hide   the 
disastrous  truth  from  the  vision  of  mankind. 

CCXXIV. 

The  oppression  of  a  majority  is  detestable  and 
odious  —  the  oppression  of  a  minority  is  only  by  one 
degree  less  detestable  and  less  odious.  The  face  of 
justice  is  like  the  face  of  the  god  Janus.  It  is  like  the 
face  of  those  lions,  the  work  of  Landseer,  which  keep 
watch  and  ward  around  the  record  of  our  country's 
greatness.  She  presents  the  tranquil  and  majestic 
countenance  towards  every  point  of  the  compass  and 
every  quarter  of  the  globe.  That  rare,  that  noble,  that 
imperial  virtue  has  this  above  all  other  qualities,  that 
she  is  not  respector  of  persons,  and  she  will  not  take 
advantage  of  a  favorable  moment  to  oppress  the  wealthy 
for  the  sake  of  flattering  the  poor,  any  more  than  she 
will  condescend  to  oppress  the  poor  for  the  sake  of 
pampering  the  luxuries  of  the  rich. 

ccxxv. 

If  we  be  just  men,  we  shall  go  forward  in  the  name 
of  truth  and  right,  bearing  this  in  mind  —  that,  when 
the  case  is  proved,  and  the  hour  is  come,  justice 
delayed  is  justice  denied. 


LABOR.  273 

CCXXVI. 

How,  in  a  country  like  England,  where  wealth  ac- 
cumulates with  such  vast  rapidity,  are  we  to  check  the 
growth  of  luxury  and  selfishness  by  a  sound  and  healthy 
opinion  ?  How  are  we  to  secure  to  labor  its  due  honor 
—  I  mean  not  only  to  the  labor  of  the  hands,  but  to 
the  labor  of  the  man  with  any  and  all  the  faculties 
which  God  has  given  him  ?  How  are  we  to  make 
ourselves  believe,  and  how  are  we  to  bring  the  country 
to  believe,  that  in  the  sight  of  God  and  man  labor  is 
honorable  and  idleness  is  contemptible  ?  Depend  upon 
it,  I  do  but  speak  the  serious  and  solemn  truth  when  I 
say  that  beneath  the  political  questions  which  are 
found  on  the  surface  lie  those  deeper  and  more  search- 
ing questions  that  enter  the  breast  and  strike  home 
to  the  conscience  and  mind  of  every  man ;  and  it  is 
upon  the  solution  of  those  questions  that  the  well-being 
of  England  must  depend.  In  the  words  of  a  popular 
poet,  I  give  vent  to  this  sentiment  of  hope,  with  which 
for  one  I  venture  to  look  forward  for  the  future  of 
England : 

"  The  ancient  virtue  is  not  dead  and  long  may  it  endure, 
May  wealth  in  England " 

and  I  am  sure  he  means  by  wealth  that  higher  sense 
of  it  —  prosperity,  and  sound  prosperity  — 

"  May  wealth  in  England  never  fail,  nor  pity  for  the  poor.'' 


274  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

May  strength  and  the  means  of  material  prosperity 
never  be  wanting  to  us ;  but  it  is  far  more  important 
that  there  shall  not  be  wanting  the  disposition  to  use 
those  means  aright. 

CCXXVII. 

What  I  would  always  desire  in  trades  unions,  and 
what  I  look  upon  as  essential  to  their  full  utility,  is 
that  those  who  enter  into  such  combinations  shall  fully 
and  absolutely  respect  the  liberty  of  those  who  do  not 
wish  to  enter  them,  and  further,  that  they  shall, 
although  it  is  a  difficult  lesson  for  them,  adopt  large 
and  liberal  principles  with  regard  to  all  the  points  that 
touch  them  in  the  exercise  of  their  profession.  Ques- 
tions such  as  the  employment  of  women,  the  employ- 
ment of  boys  and  young  men,  piecework,  etc. —  on 
the  whole  of  these  questions  they  should  get  rid  of 
narrow  and  selfish  views,  and  should  adopt  sound 
ones.  I  am  bound  to  say  that  I  think  they  are  often 
lectured  upon  these  narrow  and  selfish  views  by  other 
people  in  higher  stations  who  are  very  apt  to  act 
upon  narrow  and  selfish  views  themselves  when  they 
can.  But  that  is  not  the  question. 

Is  it  the  best  for  themselves  ?  I  am  convinced  that 
they  should  be  large  and  liberal  in  all  their  views  with 
regard  to  the  employment  of  labor,  because,  after  all, 
when  men  choose  to  put  unnatural  and  unnecessary 


LABOR.  275 

restrictions  on  the  labor  of  women  and  children,  what 
is  that  but  putting  it  on  the  members  of  their  own 
family,  for  these  women  and  children  are  persons  in 
intimate  associations  with  them. 

CCXXVIII. 

Those  who  are  least  able  to  take  care  of  themselves 
should  be  most  regarded  by  others.  Particularly  is  it 
a  duty  to  endeavor  by  every  means,  that  labor  may 
receive  adequate  remuneration.  Whatever  measures  there- 
fore —  whether  by  correction  of  the  poor  laws,  al- 
lotment of  cottage  grounds,  or  otherwise  —  tend  to 
promote  this  object,  I  deem  entitled  to  the  warmest 
support;  with  all  such  as  are  calculated  to  secure  sound 
moral  conduct  in  any  class  of  society. 

CCXXIX. 

An  agitation  by  the  working  classes  is  not  like  an 
agitation  by  the  classes  above  them  having  leisure. 
The  agitation  of  the  classes  having  leisure  is  easily 
conducted.  Every  hour  of  their  time  has  not  a  money 
value;  their  wives  and  children  are  not  dependent  on 
application  of  those  hours  of  labor.  When  a  working 
man  finds  himself  in  such  a  condition  that  he  must 
abandon  that  daily  labor  on  which  he  is  strictly  depend- 


276  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

ent  for  his  daily  bread,  it  is  only  because  then,  in  rail- 
way language,  the  danger  signal  is  turned  on,  and 
because  he  feels  a  strong  necessity  for  action,  and 
a  distrust  of  the  rulers  who  have  driven  him  to  that 
necessity. 

ccxxx. 

We  cannot  consent  to  look  upon  a  large  addition, 
considerable  although  it  may  be,  to  the  political  power 
of  the  working  classes  of  England,  as  if  it  were  an 
addition  fraught  with  mischief  and  with  danger.  We 
cannot  look,  and  we  hope  no  man  will  look  upon  it  as 
some  Trojan  horse  approaching  the  walls  of  the  sacred 
city,  and  filled  with  armed  men,  bent  upon  ruin,  plun- 
der, and  conflagration.  We  cannot  join  in  comparing  it 
with  that  monstrum  infelix  —  we  cannot  say  — 

" —  Scandit  fatalis  machina  muros, 
Fceta  armis :  mediasque  minans  illabitur  urbi." 

By  giving  to  the  working  classes  new  interests  in  the 
constitution,  you  shall,  by  the  beneficent  processes  of 
the  law  of  nature  and  of  providence,  beget  in  them  new 
attachment ;  and  the  attachment  of  the  people  to  the 
institutions  and  the  laws  under  which  they  live  is,  after 
all,  more  than  gold  and  silver,  or  more  than  fleets  and 
armies,  at  once  the  strength,  the  glory,  and  the  safety 
of  the  land. 


SIN.  277 

ccxxxr. 

As  among  individuals  nemo  repente  fuit  turpissimus, 
so  in  States  the  most  terrible  developments  of  lawless- 
ness and  crime  are  indicators  of  some  disease  which, 
however  deep,  yet  in  a  community  is,  if  taken  in  time, 
never  fatal.  And  it  will  be  a  mistake  scarcely  less  ruin- 
ous in  its  extent  than  the  iniquity,  if  the  feelings  which 
that  iniquity  excites  are  allowed  to  exhaust  themselves 
in  indignation,  or  in  retribution,  and  if  they  do  not 
accept  as  the  one  paramount  lesson  from  the  catastro- 
phe the  absolute  necessity  of  careful  study,  and  of 
appropriate  remedies. 

CCXXXII. 

Avoidance  of  sin,  comprehensive  as  is  the  meaning 
of  the  phrase,  is  still  an  inadequate  and  partial  ex- 
pression of  a  Christian's  law  of  duty ;  and,  in  like 
manner,  simple  recoil  from  a  false  religion  would  leave 
us  but  imperfectly  possessed  with  those  positive  quali- 
ties of  truth,  without  which  mere  negations,  however 
accurate,  are  utterly  unfruitful. 

CCXXXIII. 

External  success  cannot  always  silence  the  monitor 
that  lies  within.  You  all  know  the  noble  tragedy  of 


278  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

our  great  Shakespeare  in  which  Lady  Macbeth,  after 
having  achieved  the  utmost  external  success,  after  hav- 
ing waded  through  blood  to  a  crown,  and  that  crown 
at  the  moment  seemingly  undisputed,  yet  is  so  troubled 
with  the  silent  action  of  conscience  residing  within 
the  breast  that  reason  itself  is  shaken  in  its  seat,  and 
she  appears  at  night  wandering  through  the  chambers 
of  her  castle.  What  does  she  say  ?  There  she  had 
nothing  to  warn  her  from  without,  nothing  to  alarm  her. 
Her  success  had  been  complete.  She  had  reached  the 
top  of  what  some  think  to  be  human  felicity,  and  what 
all  admit  to  be  human  authority.  What  does  she  say 
in  that  condition  ? 

"  Here's  the  smell  of  the  blood  still ;  all  the  perfumes  of 
Arabia  will  not  sweeten  this  little  hand." 

And  the  physician  appointed  to  wait  on  her,  in  the  few 
simple  pregnant  words  of  the  poet  says  — 

"  This  disease  is  beyond  my  practice." 

Yes ;  the  disease  of  an  evil  conscience  is  beyond  the 
practice  of  all  the  physicians  of  all  the  countries  in 
the  world.  The  penalty  may  linger ;  but  if  it  lingers, 
it  only  lingers  to  drive  one  on  further  into  guilt,  and 
to  make  retribution  when  it  comes  more  severe  and 
more  disastrous.  It  is  written  in  the  eternal  laws  of 
the  universe  of  God  that  sin  shall  be  followed  by 
suffering. 


SIN.  279 

CCXXXIV. 

The  spiritual  and  the  carnal  principle  have  not  com- 
mon grounds  in  religion,  sufficient  to  move  man. 
True,  there  is  in  both  a  sense  of  pleasure  and  of 
pain;  but  of  the  objects  within  the  range  of  our  expe- 
rience those  which  to  the  apprehension  of  the  one  are 
pleasurable,  are  painful  in  the  view  of  the  other, 
and  vice  versa.  Here,  therefore,  their  range  of  contact 
determines.  Both  again  have  a  conception  of  duty; 
but  these  conceptions  are  essentially  distinct  in  respect 
of  the  supreme  law  to  which  duty  is  referred,  and  also 
of  the  rules  and  measures  by  which  it  is  ascertained 
in  human  practice.  Reasoning  therefore  may  proceed 
to  a  certain  point,  situated  somewhere  between  religion 
and  irreligion  ;  and  we  may  undoubtedly  derive  aid 
from  those  relics  and  fragments  of  better  views  which 
are  yet  to  be  found  amidst  the  ruins  of  the  spiritual 
nature  of  man.  But  the  analysis  of  moral  action  must 
have  its  limits ;  we  may  resolve  questions  into  their 
elements,  and  these  again  we  may  divide  into  .their 
constituent  parts  ;  but  when  we  have  fallen  back  upon 
the  simple  ideas  themselves,  which  are  the  original 
grounds  of  the  argument,  we  shall  find  that  the  law  of 
our  actual  nature  and  the  law  of  Divine  Revelation  are 
fatally  at  variance  upon  those  simple  ideas,  whose 
grounds  (by  the  hypothesis)  argument  cannot  explain  ; 
and  here  accordingly  we  see,  that  there  must  be  a 


280  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

spiritual  process  rectifying  these  simple  ideas  and 
their  root  within  us,  in  order  that  reasoning  may  take 
its  due  effect  by  setting  out  from  right  premises.  Until 
we  have  the  same  primary  conceptions  of  good  and 
evil,  of  the  sources  of  pleasure  and  pain,  which  the 
gospel  embodies,  it  is  of  no  avail  that  we  consent  to 
employ  in  argument  the  phraseology  which  Scripture 
supplies,  or  that  the  steps  of  our  reasonings  are  logi- 
cally accurate. 

ccxxxv. 

The  Scripture  sets  forth  to  us  the  fulfilment  of  the 
will  of  God  as  the  best  and  paramount  object  of 
desire.  But  that  will  of  God  refuses  to  the  natural 
man  the  very  things  that  he  chiefly  loves.  What  natu- 
ral instinct  prompts  as  desirable,  the  will  of  God  says 
is  the  reverse.  Here,  therefore,  our  affection  is  at 
variance  with  the  divine  command,  which  command 
undoubtedly  is  in  its  terms  perceivable  by  the  under- 
standing. They  are  opposed  to  one  another  as  affir- 
mative and  negative.  Nor  is  the  difficulty  removed 
by  the  promise  of  heaven  or  the  threat  of  hell.  For 
the  natural  man  does  not  find  in  his  view  of  the 
heavenly  life  that  character  of  desirableness  which  the 
Word  of  God  asserts  to  belong  to  it ;  again,  they  are 
at  issue  upon  the  very  rudiments  which  constitute  the 
essence  of  happiness,  and  contradict  one  another.  Or 


SIN.  281 

if  he  be  tempted  by  the  promise  of  happiness  in  the 
gross,  and  terrified  by  the  prospect  of  pains,  which  are 
undoubtedly  described  in  terms  that  he  can  appreciate 
still  the  energy  of  our  affections  is  much  more  power- 
fully incited  by  proximate  objects,  as  a  general  rule, 
than  by  distant  ones,  especially  when  they  are  also 
more  thoroughly  in  affinity  with  our  disposition ;  and 
will  therefore,  unless  they  be  touched  from  within  by 
a  divine  influence,  incline  much  more  to  present  en- 
joyments than  to  the  negative  idea  of  the  avoidance 
of  future  pains,  and  the  remote  and  feeble  idea  of  the 
acquisition  of  joy  in  heaven. 

In  fine,  to  perceive  in  the  will  of  God  those  qualities 
of  goodness  and  desirableness  without  which  we  can- 
not love  it,  our  affections  must  have  been  first 
detached  from  their  present  objects,  which  are  such 
as  they  themselves  have  grasped  by  their  natural  im- 
pulses, arising  out  of  their  actual  and  depraved  com- 
position. No  reasoning  can  effect  this  change  more 
than  it  can  prove  an  object  to  be  white  which  the 
eye  testifies  to  be  black.  For  as  the  eye  conveys  the 
impression  of  blackness,  so  the  affection  conveys  the 
impression  of  desirableness.  It  attaches  that  quality 
to  the  dictates  oi  our  own  will ;  that  is  to  say,  in 
effect,  of  itself.  It  does  not  see  it  belonging  to  the 
objects  indicated  by  the  will  of  God.  Surely  then  it 
is  indisputable,  that  as  the  sense,  if  depraved  requires 
a  physical  operation  (whether  of  nature  or  art)  to  rec- 


282  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

tify  it :  so  the  affection  being  depraved  requires  a 
spiritual  impression,  and  that  since  the  subject-matter 
of  the  Christian  religion  has  for  its  office  to  present 
food  to  the  affections,  that  food  can  only  be  available 
as  such  by  an  aptitude  in  these  to  receive  it,  instead 
of  the  existing  contrariety;  in  other  words,  belief 
depends  upon  assimilation  :  quod  sumus  scimus :  and 
the  understanding  alone  cannot  cure  the  affections, 
more  than  it  can  heal  a  wound  or  set  a  limit. 

CCXXXVI. 

A  depraved  theory  does  not  bring  with  it  the  same 
degree  of  pleasure  as  a  depraved  practice :  conse- 
quently the  temptation  to  a  depraved  theory  is  less 
powerful  than  the  inducement  to  a  depraved  act  upon 
the  same  subject-matter.  In  the  case  of  the  act  the 
pleasure  is  immediate,  and  helps  to  blink  or  hide  the 
sin.  In  the  case  when  the  evil  is  to  be  conceived  and 
to  be  entertained  in  the  distinct  form  of  a  principle 
before  it  issues  into  practice,  the  pleasure  is  contingent 
and  remote,  and  less  able  to  raise  a  tempest  of  passion 
in  its  behalf  ;  so  that  frequently  the  same  degree  of 
strength  will  enable  us  to  repudiate  a  mischievous  prin- 
ciple, which  will  not  enable  us,  when  the  occasion  is 
immediate,  to  refuse  an  action  such  as  can  only  be 
justified,  and  therefore  such  as  can  only  with  consis- 
tency L>e  performed,  upon  that  principle.  And  hence 


SIN.  283 

St.  Paul  describes  as  an  aggravated  guilt  that  of 
those,  who  not  only  do  evil,  but  have  pleasure  in  those 
that  do  it :  /.  <?.,  who  begin  to  regard  evil  as  a  kind 
of  law  to  their  nature,  as  a  principle  authoritative  in 
itself,  and  a  bond,  consequently,  of  union  and  sympa- 
thy :  they  are  supposed  to  have  reached  such  hardness 
as  that  they  deliberately  contemplate  it  in  their  belief, 
and  are  not  merely  surprised  into  it  by  negligence  or 
passion,  or  want  of  self-government.  With  this  idea 
it  is  that  Milton,  in  describing  Belial  as  the  extreme 
of  base  wickedness,  has  placed  him  at  the  close  of 
the  infernal  procession,  and  writes  : 

"  Belial  came  last :  than  whom  a  spirit  more  lewd 
Fell  not  from  heaven,  or  more  gross  to  love 
Vice  for  itself," 

CCXXXVII. 

It  is  the  intermixture  of  evil  with  good  in  all  the 
subjective  forms  of  religion  which  gives  a  dangerous 
and  fearful  scope  to  uncharitableness  in  theological 
controversy ;  and  it  is  the  presence  of  good  amidst  the 
evil  which  may  indeed  open  in  an  opposite  direction 
the  danger  of  confounding  true  and  false  by  equating 
them  all,  but  which  if  that  peril  be  escaped,  presents 
in  the  task  of  their  careful  discrimination  at  once  an 
exercise  of  faith  and  a  labor  of  love. 


284  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

CCXXXVIII. 

There  is  something  that  indicates  a  feeble  tone  of 
mind,  a  dependence  on  secondary  circumstances,  and  a 
want  of  genuine  and  ardent  thirst  in  the  soul  for 
truth,  whenever  in  momentous  controversies  men  leave 
the  great  issue  of  true  or  false  unexamined,  and  pre- 
maturely grasp  at  some  consequence,  which,  following 
according  to  their  judgment  from  the  establishment  of 
the  contested  proposition,  is  also  as  they  think,  likely 
to  raise  a  prejudice  against  it.  Or  when,  instead  of 
inquiring  into  that  main  issue,  they  inquire  into  the 
manner  in  which  it  may  affect  themselves,  and  the. 
uncomfortable  sentiments  which  it  has  aroused  and 
may  arouse  in  them :  as  if  their  own  feelings  were  to 
govern  and  determine  the  essence  of  divine  truth,  in- 
stead of  being  submitted  to  and  determined  by  it. 

CCXXXIX. 

It  has  been  observed  as  a  circumstance  full  of 
meaning,  that  no  man  knows  the  names  of  the  architects 
of  our  cathedrals.  They  left  no  record  of  their  names 
upon  the  .  fabrics,  as  if  they  would  have  nothing  there 
that  could  suggest  any  other  idea  than  the  glory  of  that 
God  to  whom  the  edifices  were  devoted  for  perpetual 
and  solemn  worship  ;  nothing  to  mingle  meaner  associa- 
tion with  the  profound  sense  of  his  presence  ;  or  as  if 


ECO  TISM.  285 

in  the  joy  of  having  built  him  a  house,  there  was 
no  want  left  unfulfilled,  nor  room  for  the  question 
whether  it  is  good  for  a  man  to  live  in  posthumous 
renown.  But  come  to  the  mean  and  petty  reconstruc- 
tions of  the  interiors  of  our  parochial  churches,  which 
have  been  effected  within  the  last  hundred  years,  and 
we  find  that  they  are  bedaubed,  even  if  the  achievement 
be  no  more  than  the  building  of  a  gallery,  with  the 
names  at  length,  and  often  in  a  position  of  most  in- 
decent prominence,  of  those,  not  whose  imaginations 
devised  the  work,  not  whose  hands  fashioned  it,  not 
whose  offerings  bore  the  cost,  but  such  as  have  held 
some  temporary  parochial  office,  as  have  been,  for  the 
unsightly  work,  some  Fidenarum  Gabiorumque  potestas, 
and  thus  have  been  enabled  to  gratify  their  vanity  in 
the  temple  of  God. 

CCXL. 

It  is  not  a  visionary  notion,  it  is  a  sober  and  solid 
Christian  truth,  that  even'-  high-minded  man  will  carry 
on  the  work  of  self-discipline  itself,  not  so  much  with 
his  own  individual  benefit  and  happiness  habitually 
before  his  eyes  as  with  the  glory  of  God,  filling,  and 
delighting,  and  enlarging  his  vision,  and  enabling,  him 
to  discharge  that  work  more  joyfully  and  more  ef- 
fectually than  if  his  thoughts  and  hopes  ran  only  the 
narrow  round  of  his  own  insulated  being.  Beside^ 


286  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

there  is  generally  implanted  in  our  natural  constitution, 
an  ample  security  for  at  least  a  sufficient  amount  of 
desire  and  inclination  towards  our  own  particular 
benefit ;  so  that  for  one  error  of  defect  there  will  al- 
ways be  a  thousand  excesses  in  this  direction.  Sound 
ethics  would  surely  require  of  us  not  to  look  only  at 
the  one,  but  also  to  make  some  provision  against  the 
thousand  cases.  There  is  no  fear  of  any  extensive 
deficiency  in  the  regard  of  the  individual  to  his  own 
welfare,  so  far  as  quantity  is  concerned ;  the  great 
difficulty  is  to  induce  us  to  adopt  the  true  way  of 
attaining  it,  namely,  by  looking  at  that  higher  end 
which  we  are  bidden  and  bounden  to  contemplate, 
and  leaving  the  result  in  God's  hand.  All  the  reflex 
action  and  care  of  the  conscientions  mind  upon  itself 
will  in  this  \v;iy  be  preserved ;  but  it  will  be  kept 
more  free  from  the  taint  of  selfishness,  while  it  will 
also  securely  realize  the  objects  at  which  that  hateful 
spirit  grasps  in  vain. 

CCXLI. 

Whatever  may  or  has  been  said,  and  by  persons  of 
great  authority,  respecting  self-love  as  a  part  of  our 
constitutions,  may  it  not  well  be  questioned  whether 
self  was  ever  intended  to  form  an  object  of  separate 
contemplation  on  any  distinct  principle  of  preference, 
whether  in  short  the  whole  amount  of  our  dealings 


EGOTISM.  287 

with  self,  though  they  may  constitute  the  greater  part 
of  ou  mental  life,  be  not  subject  to  exactly  the  same 
laws  as  the  ordinarily  less  amount  of  our  dealings  with 
others ;  whether  a  preference  to  self  as  such  be  ever 
justified  in  a  Christian  view :  and  further,  whether  at 
all  events,  and  on  the  shewing  even  .of  those  who  would 
here  support  an  opposite  doctrine,  the  idea  of  self  as 
an  authority,  and  of  the  mere  doctrine  of  self  as  a 
motive,  whether  to  belief  or  to  practice,  and  whether 
in  things  human  or  in  things  divine,  be  not  by  a  reat 
deal  too  prominent  in  almost  every  mind?  Then 
coalescence  with  our  brethren  is  advantageous.  For 
united  action  will  be  incompatible  with  an  arbitrary  or 
capricious  independence  of  judgment:  it  will  discourage 
self-reliance  in  the  adoption  of  conclusions  :  it  will  bring 
before  us  in  the  processes  of  reflection,  the  sentiments 
of  others,  their  claims  to  respect,  and  other  comparative 
probabilities  of  correctness. 

CCXLII. 

Every  Christian,  of  whatever  distinctive  name,  in 
proportion  as  he  is  really  influenced  by  the  truths  of 
Christianity,  will  find,  when  he  looks  abroad  upon  the 
heathen  world,  no  cause  of  exultation  from  the  compar- 
ison between  his  less  favored  brethren  and  himself ;  but 
on  the  contrary  his  first  and  paramount  impression 
will  be  that  of  the  greater  disproportion  between  means 


288  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

and  performances  in  his  case  than  in  theirs  —  that  of 
his  deserving  many  stripes  while  they  deserve  few. 

CCXLIII. 

I  believe  that  jealous  self-scrutiny,  both  in  individuals 
and  communities,  free  and  ample  confession  and  sharp 
censure  of  our  own  delinquencies,  are  not  only  most 
•  befitting  our  human  infirmity  and  sin,  but  are  the  best 
criterion  of  a  real  strength,  the  most  hopeful  signs  of 
capacity  to  attain  to  truth  by  undergoing  her  discipline. 

CCXLIV. 

It  is  extremely  painful  to  see  on  every  hand,  in 
almost  every  church,  monumental  inscriptions  recording 
social  respectability,  domestic  affection,  professional 
talent,  scientific  acquirement,  martial  valor,  even  —  in 
one  instance  which  has  met  my  eye  —  distinction  in 
freemasonry,  without  any  accompanying  notice  of  the 
Christian  hopes  of  the  deceased  ;  and  of  that  char- 
acter by  virtue  of  which  alone  their  human  qualities 
can  justly  claim  either  permanence  or  praise.  What 
respect  has  the  stern  sceptre  of  death  for  these  earthly 
shows  ?  What  title  have  they  to  be  commemorated 
amidst  the  solemnity  of  the  Christian  temple,  unless 
they  be  under  the  seal  of  Christ  ?  Gladdening  it  is 
in  the  long  galleries  of  the  Vatican,  walled  with  the 


EGOTISM.  289 

sepulchral  inscriptions  of  antiquity,  to  pass  from  these 
cheerless  memorials  of  the  dead,  which  alone  paganism 
could  supply,  to  the  emphatic  phrases  and  the  not  less 
eloquent  symbols,  which  marked  the  tombstones  of 
the  early  Christians,  and  told  of  their  present  peace 
and  joyful  anticipations  of  the  future ;  but  how  sad 
that  we  should  now  recoil  from  the  use  of  our  free 
privileges,  and  speak,  as  is  so  often  the  case,  of  the 
dead  in  Christ,  as  though  immortality  was  not  yet 
brought  to  light  1 

CCXLV. 

r 

It  is  the  general  truth,  that  even  in  carrying  out  the 
principle  of  holiness  into  the  details  of  charity  or  self- 
discipline,  we  are  continually  beset  by  the  danger  of 
imbibing  some  tinge  of  belief  that  our  acts  are  merito- 
rious ;  of  mistaking  what  is  done  in  us,  for  what  is 
done  by  us;  and  of  imagining  that  anything  done 
either  in  us  or  by  us,  could  establish  a  claim  of  desert, 
properly  so  called. 

But  are  we  on  account  of  this  danger  to  suffer  the 
principle  to  lie  barren  ?  Are  we  to  refrain  from  acts 
of  benevolence,  because  we  may  inflate  ourselves  upon 
them  with  our  insane  pride  ?  Why  then  should  we  not 
refrain  from  acts  of  self-government,  self-restraint,  self- 
discipline,  because  we  may  be  guilty  of  the  same  wick- 
edness to  which  in  every  act  of  duty,  be  it  what  it 


290  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

may,  we  are  perpetually  liable  ?  From  this  we  can 
only  be  preserved  in  discharging  any  of  them,  by  the 
power  of  divine  grace  :  but  that  power  is  alike  suf- 
ficient to  preserve  us  in  them  all ;  and  in  fact  we  may 
fear  that  the  carnal  mind  sometimes  shelters  itself 
under  this  plausible  objection,  in  order  to  avoid  the 
sacrifice  of  its  appetites,  because  whenever  the  argu- 
ment is  tested  by  application  to  one  of  the  other 
departments  of  Christian  obligation,  we  at  once  see 
that,  while  most  useful  as  a  warning,  it  is  utterly  futile 
in  argument  and  mischievous  in  practice,  if  it  be 
opposed  to  acts  good  in  themselves  and  in  their 
circumstances. 

CCXLVI. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  world  does  not  know  its 
greatest  men ;  neither,  I  will  add,  is  it  aware  of  the 
power  and  might  carried  by  the  words  and  by  the  acts 
of  those  among  its  greatest  men  whom  it  does  know. 

CCXLVII. 

No  wave  on  the  great  ocean  of  time,  when  once  it 
has  floated  past  us,  can  be  .recalled.  All  we  can  do 
is  to  watch  the  new  form  and  motion  of  the  next,  and 
launch  upon  it  to  try,  in  the  manner  our  best  judgment 
may  suggest,  our  strength  and  skill. 


TRUE  GREATNESS.  291 

CCXLVIII. 

Take  a  human  soul  profoundly  conscious  of  the  taint 
and  power  of  sin  ;  one  given  to  the  contemplation  of 
the  character  of  Christ,  and  shocked  at  its  own  im- 
measurable distance  from  the  glorious  image  of  the 
Master  ;  one  pained  not  only  with  the  positive  forms  of 
corruption,  but  with  the  pervading  grief  of  general 
imperfection  and  unworthiness,  and  with  the  sense  how 
the  choicest  portions  of  the  life  strangely  run  to  waste, 
how  the  best  designs  are  spoiled  by  faulty  actuation, 
how  there  are  tears  (in  the  touching  language  of  Bishop 
Beveridge)  that  want  washing,  and  repentance  that 
needs  to  be  repented  of.  Such  an  one  feels  himself 
engaged  in  a  double  warfare,  against  evil  without  and 
against  evil  within  ;  and  finds  the  last  even  fiercer  than 
the  first.  To  deprive  one  so  minded  of  any  fraction  of 
what  are  termed  the  doctrines  of  grace,  of  such  lights 
as  shone  upon  the  souls  of  St.  Paul,  St.  Augustine, 
and  St.  Bernard,  is  to  drain  away  the  life's  blood  of  the 
spirit,  and  lay  him  helpless  at  the  feet  of  inexorable 
foes.  For  a  nature  such  as  this,  religion  is  not  only  a 
portion  or  department  of  conduct,  but,  by  a  stringent 
necessity,  the  great,  standing,  solemn  drama  of  life ; 
that  in  which  all  mental  powers,  and  all  emotions  of  the 
heart,  are  most  constantly  and  intensely  exercised  ;  and 
the  yearnings,  efforts,  and  conflicts  which  belong  to  the 


292  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

external   order  are   as   nothing   compared  with   those 
which  are  to  God  —  wards. 

CCXLIX. 

In  the  sphere  of  personal  life,  most  men  are  misled 
through  the  medium  of  the  dominant  faculty  of  their 
nature.  It  is  round  that  dominant  faculty  that  folly 
and  flattery  are  wont  to-buzz.  They  play  upon  vain 
glory  by  exaggerating  and  commending  what  it  does, 
and  by  piquing  it  on  what  it  sees  cause  to  forbear  from 
doing.  It  is  so  with  nations.  For  all  of  them  the 
supreme*  want  really  is,  to  be  warned  against  the  indul- 
gence of  the  dominant  passion. 

CCL. 

It  is  easy  to  enumerate  many  characteristics  of  the 
greatness  of  Sir  Robert  Peel.  It  is  easy  to  speak  of 
his  ability,  of  his  sagacity,  of  his  indefatigable  indus- 
try ;  but  great  as  were  the  intellectual  powers  of  Sir 
Robert  Peel,  if  you  will  allow  me,  as  one  who  may  call 
myself  his  pupil  and  his  follower  in  politics,  to  bear 
my  witness,  this  I  must  say,  that  there  was  something 
greater  still  in  Sir  Robert  Peel  —  something  yet  more 
admirable  than  the  immense  intellectual  endowments 
with  which  it  had  pleased  the  Almighty  to  gift  him, — 
and  that  was,  his  sense  of  public  virtue, —  it  was  his 


TR  UE  GREA  TNESS.  293 

purity  of  conscience, —  it  was  his  determination  to  fol- 
low the  public  good, —  it  was  that  disposition  in  him 
which,  when  he  had  to  choose  between  personal  ease 
and  enjoyment,  or  again,  on  the  other  hand,  between 
political  power  and  distinction,  and  what  he  knew  to  be 
the  welfare  of  the  nation,  his  choice  was  made  at  once, 
and  when  his  choice  was  once  made,  no  man  ever  saw 
him  hesitate  —  no  man  ever  saw  him  hold  back  from 
that  which  was  necessary  to  give  it  effect. 

May  God  grant  that  through  his  example,  many  may 
have  awakened  within  their  breasts  the  noble  and  hon- 
orable desire  to  tread,  each  for  himself,  in  his  own 
sphere,  be  it  wide  or  be  it  narrow,  the  path  of  duty  and 
of  virtue  ;  and  in  discharging  those  truths  which  apper- 
tain to  us  as  citizens,  to  discharge  them  in  the  spirit  of 
that  great  man, —  the  spirit  and  determination  to  allow 
no  difficulty,  no  obstacle,  to  stand  between  him  and 
the  performance  of  his  duty, —  relying  upon  it  that 
duty  is  the  road  to  enduring  fame, —  that  if  public  men 
do  not  reap  their  rewards,  as  in  barbarous  times  they 
may  have  sought  it  from  immense  and  extensive  pos- 
sessions, measured  upon  the  surface  of  the  earth,  they 
reap  it  in  a  form  far  more  precious,  when,  like  Sir 
Robert  Peel,  they  bequeath  a  name  which  is  the  prop- 
erty not  only  of  their  family,  not  only  of  their  own  de- 
scendants, but  of  every  man  who  calls  himself  an 
Englishman  —  a  part  of  our  commonwealth  —  some- 
thing that  helps  to  endear  us  to  our  own  country  —  a 


294  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

country  that  has  a  great  and  beneficial  part  to  play  in 
the  designs  of  providence  for  the  advancement  and 
improvement  of  mankind. 

CCLI. 

Neither  pretentious  orations  nor  ambitious  dis- 
patches, which  are  but  "  tales  of  sound  and  fury,  signi- 
fying nothing,"  add  anything  to  our  greatness.  Neither 
an  individual  nor  a  state  can  heap  upon  itself  offices  of 
supererogation,  without  displacing  primary  duties  ;  just 
as  every  weed  that  we  suffer  to  grow  in  our  gardens 
occupies  the  place  which  ought  to  be  filled  by  some 
vegetable  good  for  food. 

CCLII. 

While  many  of  the  actions  of  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton, while  many  of  the  qualities  he  possessed  are  unat- 
tainable by  others,  there  are  lessons  that  we  may  all 
derive  from  the  life  and  actions  of  that  illustrious  man. 
It  may  never  be  given  to  another  subject  of  the  British 
Crown  to  perform  services  so  brilliant  as  he  performed  ; 
it  may  never  be  given  to  another  man  to  hold  the  sword 
which  was  to  gain  the  independence  of  Europe,  to  rally 
the  nations  around  it,  and  while  England  saved  herself 
by  her  constancy,  to  save  Europe  by  her  example  ;  it 
may  never  be  given  to  another  man,  after  having  at 


TR  UE  GREA  TNESS.  295 

tained  such  eminence,  after  such  an  unexampled  series 
of  victories,  to  show  equal  moderation  in  peace  as  he 
showed  greatness  in  war,  and  to  devote  the  remainder 
of  his  life  to  the  cause  of  internal  and  external  peace 
for  that  country  which  he  had  so  served  :  it  may  never 
be  given  to  another  man  to  have  equal  authority  both 
with  the  sovereign  he  served,  and  with  the  Senate  of 
which  he  was  to  the  end  a  venerated  member ;  it  may 
never  be  given  to  another  man  after  such  a  career  to 
preserve,  even  to  the  last,  the  full  possession  of  those 
great  faculties  with  which  he  was  endowed,  and  to  carry 
on  the  services  of  one  of  the  most  important  depart- 
ments of  the  State  with  unexampled  regularity  and 
success,  even  to  the  latest  day  of  his  life.  These  are 
circumstances,  these  are  qualities  which  may  never 
occur  again  in  history.  But  there  are  qualities  which 
the  Duke  of  Wellington  displayed,  of  which  we  may 
all  act  in  humble  imitation  :  that  sincere  and  unceas- 
ing devotion  to  his  country  ;  that  honest  and  upright 
determination  to  act  for  the  benefit  of  the  country  on 
every  occasion ;  that  devotedness  in  the  constant  per- 
formance of  duty ;  that  temperance  of  his  life,  which 
enabled  him  at  all  times  to  give  his  mind  and  his  fac- 
ulties to  tTie  services  which  he  was  called  on  to  per- 
form ;  that  regular,  consistent,  unceasing  piety  by  which 
he  was  distinguished  at  all  times  in  his  life,  these 
are  qualities  that  are  attainable  by  others,  and  these 
are  qualities  which  should  not  be  lost  as  an  example. 


296  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

CCLIII. 

A  long  experience  impresses  me  with  the  belief  that 
selfishness  does  not  grow  in  intensity  as  we  move 
downwards  in  society  from  class  to  class.  I  rather 
believe  if  a  distinction  is  to  be  drawn  in  this  respect, 
it  must  be  drawn  in  favor  of,  and  not  against,  the 
classes  (if  such  they  should  be  called)  which  are  lower, 
larger,  less  opulent,  and,  after  allowing  fully  for  trades 
unions,  less  organized. 

CCLIV. 

The  spirit  of  our  religion,  truly  popular  as  it  is,  has 
effaced  from  the  English  Constitution,  the  very  name 
and  idea  of  the  slave ;  but  what  if  the  selfishness  of 
class,  inhering  in  our  politics,,  has  prevented  us  from 
giving  to  the  idea  of  freedom  that  which  is  its  con- 
summation, and  to  the  character  of  the  citizen,  in  the 
humbler  orders,  the  amplitude  of  which  it  is  sus- 
ceptible ? 

CCLV. 

• 
What  for  the  happiness  of  mankind,  requires  to  be 

exercised,  is  that  spirit  of  inconsiderate  selfishness 
which,  and  which  almost  alone,  makes  this  smiling  world 
into  a  world  of  woe.  It  is  the  excessive  regard  for 
one's  own  welfare  that,  involving  as  it  always  in- 


HABIT.  297 

volves  its  misdirection,  has  marred  through  all  genera- 
tions the  fairest  prospects  of  humanity. 

CCLVI. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  our  intellectual  as  well 
as  our  moral  nature  is  ever  liable  to  be  powerfully 
affected  by  habits  previously  formed.  We  know,  for 
instance,  that  a  statesman,  a  divine,  and  a  lawyer,  each 
fairly  representing  his  class,  will  usually  take  different 
views  of  a  subject  even  where  they  agree  in  their 
conclusion :  because  they  approach  it  with  distinct 
predispositions.  These  predispositions  are  the  results 
of  their  several  employments,  which  propose  to  them 
the  several  ends  of  policy,  law,  and  divine  truth ;  and 
modify  their  common  mental  acts  accordingly. 

ccLvn. 

The  age  in  which  we  live  claims,  and  in  some 
respects,  deserves,  the  praise  of  being  active,  prudent 
and  practical :  active  in  the  endeavor  to  detect  evils, 
prudent  in  being  content  with  limited  remedies,  and 

f 

practical  in  choosing  them  according  to  effectiveness 
rather  than  to  the  canons  of  ideology.  But  if  an  eu- 
logist, contemplating  the  cause  of  events  from  one  point 
of  view,  may  hold  this  language  without  fear  of  con- 
futation, a  censor  may,  from  his  opposite  standing- 


298  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

ground,  launch  his  rebukes  with  equal  confidence  and 
equal  justice.  He  may  urge  that  we  are,  at  least  in 
the  sphere  of  public  affairs,  restless,  violent,  and  feeble  : 
restless  in  our  impatience  of  evils  which  belong  to  our 
human  state,  and  in  attempting  the  removal  of  which 
we  can  hope  nothing  better  than  to  exchange  them  for 
others  far  more  grievous ;  violent,  in  laying  irreverent 
hands  upon  good  laws  and  institutions  on  account  of 
some  imperfection  which  attaches  in  them,  or  it  may 
be  only  to  our  use  of  them  ;  lastly,  and  most  of  all, 
feeble  in  our  partial  and  narrow  modes  of  handling 
emergencies,  our  inability  to  solve  problems  with  which 
other  times  and  men  have  not  feared  to  grapple.  Nay, 
he  may  accuse  us  of  incapacity  even  to  measure  the 
scope  of  our  own  arguments ;  or  to  learn,  at  the  very 
time  when  we  are  setting  forth  under  their  guidance 
how  far  they  are  likely  to  lead  us,  and  on  what  kind  of 
ground  they  will  permit  or  enable  us  to  rest. 

In  general,  it  may  be  said  that  the  censor  and  the 
eulogist  of  the  age  are  not,  when  thus  speaking  eacli 
for  himself,  absolutely  in  conflict.  They  find  respec- 
tively their  subject-matter  in  different  fields  of  legisla- 
tion. Where  the  work  to  be  done  is  mechanical  and 
external,  the  eulogist  may  be  justified.  Where  it 
touches  the  more  inward  and  subtle  forces  which 
operate  upon  the  relations  of  man,  the  censor  is  in  the 
right.  Appreciating  complaints  by  their  louclness,  and 
remedies  by  the  hardihood  of  the  promises  their 


RE  VOL  U  TIONS.  299 

projectors  offer;  choosing  subjects  according  to  the 
immediate  profit  or  popularity  they  will  yield  and  not 
for  real  urgency;  thinking  more  of  the  present  than  the 
past,  and  of  the  future  less  than  either;  we  forswear 
the  qualities,  and  invest  the  habits  of  mind,  necessary 
for  an  occupation  where  men  should  dig  deep  for  their 
foundations,  and  learn  to  be  content  with  slow,  and  for 
a  long  time  perhaps  invisible,  results. 

CCLVIII. 

Men  are  apt  to  mistake  the  strength  of  their  feeling 
for  the  strength  of  their  argument.  The  heated  mind 
resents  the  chill  touch  and  relentless  scrutiny  of  logic. 

CCLIX. 

I  have  no  dreams  of  a  golden  age  ;  there  will  always 
be  more  than  enough  to  deplore,  more  than  enough  to 
mend.  But  let  us  at  least  thrust  aside  .the  needless 
difficulty  of  wanton  crimination;  and  let  us  labor,  in 
patience  and  good-will  towards  all,  to  handle  and  direct 
for  the  best  the  movements  of  our  time. 

CCLX. 

We  believe  that  if  one  could  construct  a  system 
which  should  present  to  mankind  all  branches  of 


300  THE  MIGHT  OF  RIGHT. 

knowledge  save  the  one  that  is  essential,  it  would 
only  be  building  up  a  Tower  of  Babel,  which,  when 
completed,  would  be  the  more  signal  in  its  fall,  and 
which  would  bury  those  who  had  raised  it  in  its  ruins. 
We  believe  that  if  you  can  take  a  human  being  in  his 
youth,  and  if  you  can  make  him  an  accomplished  man 
in  natural  philosophy,  in  mathematics,  or  in  the  knowl- 
edge necessary  for  the  profession  of  a  merchant,  a  law- 
yer, or  a  physician  ;  that  if  in  any,  or  all,  of  these 
endowments,  you  could  form  his  mind  —  yes,  if  you 
could  endow  him  with  the  science  and  power  of  a 
Newton,  and  send  him  forth  —  and  if  you  had  con- 
cealed from  him,  or,  rather,  had  not  given  him  a  knowl- 
edge and  love  of  the  Christian  faith  —  he  would  go 

o  o 

forth  into  the  world,  able  indeed  with  reference  to 
those  purposes  of  science,  successful  with  the  accumu- 
lation of  wealth  for  the  multiplication  of  more,  but 
"  poor,  and  miserable,  and  blind,  and  naked,"  with  ref- 
erence to  everything  that  constitutes  the  true  and 
sovereign  purposes  of  our  existence'. 


INDEX- 


PAGE 

ART     ••'•"• 

AUTHORSHIP 

.     Ixxxvi  —  xcvii 

122 

BEAUTY 

xxiv  —  xx\i 

39 

BELIEF 

.  cxxxviii  —  cxliii 

.    .    .     183 

CHARITY 

ccxiii  —  ccxxii 

262 

CHRISTIANITY 

xxxii  —  xli   . 

.    .    .     56 

CONSCIENCE 

Ixxii  —  Ixxvi 

no 

CONSISTENCY 

cxliv  —  cxlv 

.     .     .     189 

DISCIPLINE  . 

xxi  —  xxiil         . 

37 

DOUBT 

xcviii  —  cv    . 

137 

DUTY  . 

xlviii  —  liv    . 

86 

EDUCATION  . 

EGOTISM 

ccxxxviii  —  ccxlv 

284 

FAME   . 

.  vi  —  vii    . 

in 

GREATNESS,  TRUE 

.     ccxlvi  —  cclv  . 

290 

GOVERNMENT 

cxiriv  —  cxxxviii     . 

159 

HABIT         . 

HISTORY 

ccx  —  ccxii 

260 

HUMANITY  . 

Ixix  —  Ixxi  . 

109 

JUSTICE 

cvii  —  ex    . 

147 

KNOWLEDGE 

cxlvi  —  clvii  . 

190 

LADOR 

.    ccxxvi  —  ccxxx 

273 

LIBERTY 

Ixii  —  Ixvi 

101 

LITERATURE 

clxviii  —  clxxvi 

206 

PATRIOTISM 

cl  .'iii  —  clxvii 

201 

ccci 

CCC11 


Index. 


POETRY     .        .        .        Ixxvii  —  lxx.\v 
PROGRESS .       .       .       .        i  —  v     . 
PROVIDENCE     .        .        .  Ixvii  • 
PULPIT,  THE     .        .        .    cxv 
RELIC.ION  ....    cxc 
REVOLUTIONS   .       .        cclvii 
RICH  AND  POOR        .         cxviii 
ScRirruRES,  THE  HOLY  .    xlii 
SIN    ....       ccxxxi  - 

SlNCKRlTY  .  .  .  xlvii  — 

SLAVERY   .        .        .      ccxxiii — ccxxv 
TRUTH      .        .        .  Iv  —  Ixi  . 

WAR         ....   cxi  —  cxiv 
WORSHIP  .        .        .      clxxvii  —  clxxxix 


—  Ixviii 

—  cxvii 

—  ccix 

—  cclx 

—  cxxiii 

—  xlvi 

—  ccxxxvii 


NEW  PUBLICATIONS. 


THE  LIFE  AND  EXPLORATIONS  OF  DAVID  LIVIXGSTOXE, 
LL.  D.  By  John  S.  Roberts.  Including  Extracts  from  Dr. 
Livingstone's  Last  Journal.  By  Rev.  E.  A.  Manning,  with 
Portrait  on  steel  and  illustrations.  Boston:  D.  Lothrop  & 
Co.  Price  $1.50.  So  long  as  there  exists  in  the  humau 
mind  an  admiration  for  heroism  in  a  good  cause,  for  cour- 
age under  extraordinary  difficulties,  for  inflexible  persever- 
ance in  the  face  of  obstacles  seemingly  insurmountable,  and 
for  faith  remaining  unshaken  amidst  disheartening  sur- 
roundings, so  long  will  the  memory  of  David  Livingstone 
be  held  in  respect  and  reverence.  The  simple  and  un- 
adorned story  of  the  wanderings  and  sufferings  of  the  mis- 
sionary explorer  in  the  wilds  of  Africa  possesses  a  stronger 
fascination  than  the  most  skilfully-devised  romance.  More 
than  thirty  of  the  most  active  years  of  the  life  of  Living- 
stone were  spent  in  Africa.  Going  to  that  country  at  the 
early  age  of  twenty-seven  to  engage  in  missionary  work,  for 
nine  years  he  mingled  with  the  native  tribes,  acquiring 
their  language,  teaching,  and  making  such  explorations  as 
were  incidental  to  his  labors.  At  the  end  of  that  time, 
fired  with  the  desire  of  opening  up  the  mysteries  of  that 
almost  unknown  country,  he  set  out  upon  a  journey  of 
exploration,  the  particular  aim  being  the  discovery  of  Lake 
Ngami.  He  succeeded,  and  collected,  besides,  a  vast 
amount  of  scientific  and  geographical  information  which 
was  antirely  new.  In  1&52,  having  sent  his  family  to  Eng- 
land, he  started  on  another  journey  of  exploration,  being 
absent  four  years,  and  traversing  in  that  time  over  eleven 
thousand  miles.  On  his  return  he  published  his  first  book, 
in  which  he  detailed  his  discoveries.  He  paid  a  short  visit 
to  England,  where  he  was  received  with  open  arms  by 
scholars  and  scientific  men,  and  every  honor  was  accorded 
him.  In  1858  he  began  his  third  voyage  of  exploration,  ac- 
companied by  his  wife,  who  died  on  the  way.  He  returned 
in  1868,  but  immediately  set  out  with  a  more  extended  plan 
in  view.  For  more  than  four  years  nothing  was  heard  from 
him  except  in  the  way  of  rumors.  Then  letters  came,  long 
delayed,  detailing  his  plans,  followed  by  a  silence  of  two 
years.  In  1871  he  was  found  at  Ujiji,  alive  and  well,  by 
Henry  M.  Stanley,  who  had  been  sent  in  search  of  htm  by 
the  New  York  Herald.  He  joined  Stanley,  who  had  been 
given  a  carte  blanche  for  explorations,  and  was  with  him 
until  he  died,  May  1,  ISTo,  at  Ilala,  in  Central  Africa.  The 
present  volume  is  an  intensely  interesting  account  of  these 
several  journeys  compiled  from  the  most  authentic  sources, 
the  chief  being  Livingstone's  own.  descriptions  and  journals. 


NEW  PUBLICATIONS. 

SINNEK  AND  SAINT  :  A  story  of  the  Woman's  Crusade  : 
by  A.  A.  Hopkins,  author  of  "John  Bremm:  His  Prison 
Bars,"  etc.  Boston  :  D,  Lothrop  &  Co.  Trice  $1.25.  This 
is  a  notable  addition  to  temperance  literature  and  combines, 
in  style  and  treatment,  some  of  the  strongest  charac- 
teristics of  that  unique  temperance  narrative,  with 
salient  features  peculiar  to  itself.  It  Is  both  a  live, 
progressive,  radical  reform  story,  quite  abreast  with 
the  temperance  thought  of  to-day,  and  an  intense, 
absorbing  record  of  heart  experiences,  reading  as  if 
they  were  all  real.  limits  delineation  of  scenes  and  inci- 
dents in  the  Woman's  Crusade,  it  traverses  a  field  rich  in 
suggestion,  in  feeling  and  in  fact,  and  hitherto  ignored  by 
the  novelist.  The  Crusade  marked  an  epoch  in  temperance 
activities,  and  Sinner  and  Saint  vividly  reflects  the  wonder- 
ful spirit  of  that  movement,  while  as  vividly  portraying  the 
strange  methods  and  the  remarkable  faith  that  gave  it  suc- 
cess. This  is  a  broader,  more  comprehensive  story  than  its 
predecessor  from  the  same  pen,  more  abundant  in  charac- 
ters, and  stronger  in  the  love  elements  which  these  contrib- 
ute. The  religious  tone  of  it  also,  is  more  decidedly 
pronounced.  Baylan  (N"ew  York?),  Worrom,  Ohio,  and  a 
llocky  mountain  mining  camp,  form  the  locali.  Of  all 
these  Mr.  Hopkins  writes  like  one  familiar  with  his  ground, 
as  he  is  confessedly  familiar  with  the  different  phases  of 
temperance  endeavor  and  need.  "  To  the  women  who  work 
and  pray,  for  love's  dear  sake  and  home's,  that  fallen 
manhood  may  come  to  its  own  .again,"  he  dedicates  his 
Avork.  It  should  win  the  early  perusal  of  all  that  noble 
army,  and  of  a  wide  circle  besides  —  of  all,  indeed,  who 
sympathize  with  human  weakness  and  admire  womanly 
strength. 

KINGS,  QUEENS  AND  BARBARIANS;  or,  Talks  about 
Seven  Historic  Ages.  By  Arthur  Gilman,  M.A.  New  Edi- 
tion, enlarged.  111.  Boston:  D.  Lothrop  &  Co.  Price  $1.00. 
This  handsome  little  volume,  prepared  for  young  readers,  is 
a  pleasant  condensation  of  the  main  facts  in  the  world's  his- 
tory from  the  time  of  the  Golden  Age  of  Greece,  which 
dates  back  to  five  hundred  years  before  Christ,  down  to  the 
Golden  Age  of  England,  or  the  time  of  the  Puritans.  The 
information  is  conveyed  in  the  form  of  a  family  dialogue,  in 
which  the  father  entertains  his  children  evening  after  eve- 
ning, in  a  series  of  talks,  taking  up  in  a  natural  way  one 
subject  after  another,  giving  just  enough  of  each  to  create 
an  appetite  among  the  young  listeners  to  know  more  about 
them  and  to  bring  the  various  volumes  of  history  in  the  fam- 
ily library  into  active  demand.  Young  readers  will  find  it 
a  delightful  volume. 


NEW  PUBLICATIONS. 

Egypt*  occupied  the  geographical  centre  of  the  ancient 
world.  It  was  fertile  and  attractive.  Its  inhabitants  were 
polished,  cultivated,  and  warlike.  Its  great  cities  were  cen- 
tres of  wealth  and  civilization,  .and  from  the  most  distant 
countries  came  scholars  and  travellers  to  learn  wisdom  under 
Egyptian  masters  and  study  the  arts,  sciences  and  govern- 
mental policy  of  the  country.  While  surrounding  nations 
were  sunk  in  primitive  barbarism  Egypt  shone  as  the  patron 
of  arts  and  acquirements.  With  a  natural  thirst  for  con- 
quest she  introduced  a  system  of  military  tactics  which 
made  her  armies  almost  invincible.  Her  wisdom  was  a 
proverb  among  the  surrounding  nations.  "If  a  philoso- 
pher," says  Wilkinson,  "sought  knowledge,  Egypt  was  the 
school;  if  a  prince  required  a  physician  it  was  to  Egypt  that 
he  applied:  if  any  material  point  perplexed  the  decision  of 
Kings  or  councils,  to  Egypt  it  was  referred,  and  the  arms  of 
a  Pharaoh  were  the  hope  and  frequently  the  protection,  even 
at  a  late  period,  of  a  less  powerful  ally.  It  would  surprise 
many  readers  to  know  ho\v  much  in  customs,  social  and 
religious,  has  come  down  to  us  from  this  ancient  people. 
Placing  the  ring  on  the  bride's  finger  at  marriage  is  an  in- 
stance. The  Egyptian  gold  pieces  were  in  the  form  of  rings, 
and  the  husband  placed  one  on  the  finger  of  his  wife  as  "an 
emblem  of  the  fact  that,  he  entrusted  her  henceforth  with 
all  his  property.  The  celebration  of  Twelfth  Day  and  Cand- 
lemas are  Egvptian  festivals  under  different  names.  The 
Catholic  priest  shaves  his  head  because  the  Egyptian  priests 
did  the  same  ages  before;  the  English  clergyman  reads  the 
liturgy  in  a  linen  dress  because  linen  was  the  dress  of  the 
Egyptians,  and  more  than  two  thousand  years  before  the 
bishop  of  the  Church  of  Rome  pretended  to  hold  the  keys 
of  heaven  and  hell  there  was  a  priest  in  Egypt  whose  title 
was  the  Appointed  Keeper  of  the  Two  Doors  of  Heaven. 

It  is  not  strange  that  the  story  of  this  people  and  country 
should  be  so  fascinating.  There  is  an  element  of  the  mys- 
terious in  it  which  attracts  even  the  reader  who  does  not 
care  for  historical  reading  in  general.  In  the  preparation 
of  her  work  Mrs.  Clement  lias  not  only  had  the  advantage 
of  extensive  reading  upon  the  subject,  but  of  personal  travel 
and  knowledge.  She  has  skilfully  condensed  the  vast 
amount  of  material  at  her  command,  and  presents  to  the 
reading  public  a  volume  which  needs  only  to  be  examined 
to  become  a  standard. 

*  Kgypt.  By  Mrs.  Clara  Krskine  Clement.  Lothrop's  Library  of  Enter- 
ainin/  History.  Boston:  D.  Lothrop  &  Co.  Price  $1.50. 


NEW  PUBLICATIONS. 


THE  LIFE,  TRAVELS  AND  LITEKARY  CAREER  OF  BAY- 
ARD  TAYLOR.  By  Russell  H.  Comvell.  Boston:  D.  Loth- 
rop  &  Co.  Price  $1.50.  The  author  of  this  work  says  truly 
that  "the  direct  and  unavoidable  appeal  of  a  noble  life, 
which  closed  with  honor  and  deserved  renown,  is  far  more 
patent  and  permanent  in  the  culture  and  reformation  of  the 
world  than  all  other  forms  of  mental  and  moral  quicken- 
ing." Bayard  Taylor  is  conspicuous  among  the  many  in 
our  country  who  have  risen  from  humble  conditions  by  per- 
sonal, honorable  effort,  to  high  places,  not  only  for  his  suc- 
cess, but  for  the  quality  of  that  success.  Although  not  the 
greatest  of  American  poets,  he  was  one  of  the  truest.  His 
harp  never  rang  false;  he  never  praised  things  evil  or  lent 
his  pen  to  a  bad  cause.  He  was  a  lover  of  humanity  and  of 
truth.  Although  in  one  sense  a  man  of  the  world,  he  never 
lost  the  pure  instincts  of  his  childhood,  and  though  he  had 
the  common  faults  of  humanity  they  weighed  lightly  when 
compared  with  his  virtues.  Col.  Conwell  has  told  the  story 
of  his  life,  his  struggles  and  his  final  success  with  loving 
care,  and  has  supplemented  it  with  an  account  of  his  death 
and  the  wide-spread  sorrow  it  occasioned.  He  gives  a  report 
of  the  great  memorial  meeting  held  at  Tremont  Temple,  and 
quotes  freely  and  largely  from  the  expressions  of  condolence 
and  ^flection  made  by  those  present  and  received  from  those 
of  tho  dead  poet's  friends  who  were  unable  to  be  present. 
The  vo.ume  is  issued  in  handsome  form  and  contains  a  por- 
trait of  ii'v.  Taylor. 

THE  Lrr^E  FOLKS' READER.  Illustrated.  Boston  :  D. 
Lothrop  &  Co.  Price  $1.00.  No  one  who  has  not  seen  it 
can  realize.  tliA  beauty  of  this  little  quarto,  or  the  care  with 
which  .its  contents  have  been  prepared  for  young  readers. 
It  is  intended  tor  the  use  of  little  beginners  in  the  art  of 
reading,  and  all  possible  means  have  been  taken  to  make  it 
as  attractive  as  possible.  The  stories  are  such  as  will  inter- 
est young  children,  and  are  profusely  illustrated  by  the  best 
American  draughtsmen.  As  much  pains  and  expense  have 
been  bestowed  upon  it  as  upon  some  of  the  costly  holiday 
volumes.  It  has  a  beautiful  prize  cover  designed  by  George 
F.  Barnes. 


NEW  PUBLICATIONS. 


CHIPS  FROM  THE  WHITE  HOUSE. — 12  uio.  486  pp.  $1.50 
Wliat  the  press  says  of  it: 

In  this  handsome  volume  of  five  hundred  pages  have  been 
brought  together  some  of  the  most  important  utterances  of 
our  twenty  presidents,  carefully  selected  from  speeches  and 
addresses,  public  documents  and  private  correspondence, 
:  id  touching  upon  a  large  variety  of  subjects. —  Golden. 
Rule,  Boston. 

Most  of  the  extracts  are  dated  and  accompanied  by  brief 
explanations  of  the  circumstances  under  which  they  were 
written,  and  the  volume,  therefore,  if  judiciously  read,  will 
give  a  clearer  idea  of  the  character  of  the  men  than  can  be 
gathered  elsewhere  by  reading  a  small  library  through. — 
New  York  Graphic. 

The  selections  are  made  with  judgment  and  taste,  and 
represent  not  only  the  political  status  of  the  distinguished 
writers,  but  also  their  social  and  domestic  characteristics. 
The  book  is  interesting  in  itself,  and  specially  valuable  as 
a  convenient  book  of  reference  for  students  of  American 
history.  Its  mechanical  presentation  is  all  that  can  be 
asked. —  Providence  Journal. 

Each  chapter  is  prefaced  by  a  brief  synoposis  of  the  life 
and  services  of  its  subject,  and  most  of  the  extracts  are  dated, 
with  brief  explanations  of  the  circumstances  under  which 
they  were  written.  The  work,  in  fact,  is  a  handbook.  It 
is  convenient  for  reference  of  American  history.  It  is 
printed  in  clear,  large  type,  is  tastefully  and  strongly  bound, 
and  is  supplemented  by  a  very  full  index. —  Woman's  Jour- 
nal, Boston. 

The  book  is  thoroughly  good  ;  none  better  could  be 
placed  in  the  hands  of  young  persons.  By  the  light  of 
these  they  can  see  the  reflection  of  the  character  of  the 
grand  men  who  have  been  called  to  rule  over  the  Nation 
during  its  existence.  No  other  nation  ever  had  such  a 
succsssion  of  rulers,  where  so  few  have  proved  failures.— « 
Liter  Occar .  Cfiicario. 


BOOKS    FOR    CLERGYMEN. 

The  list  of  D.  Lotlirop  &  Go's  more  important  books  is 
especially  rich  in  works  prepared  to  meet  the  wauls  of 
clergymen,  Sunday-school  superintendents  and  teacheis. 
Among  them  are  collections  of  sermons  by  eminent  preach- 
ers, full  of  thought,  and  abounding  in  practical  suggestions; 
essays  upon  doctrinal  points;  discussions  of  various  methods 
of  preaching  and  teaching;  church  history  and  biography; 
books  of  scriptural  reference  and  exegesis,  and  collections  of 
poetry  of  a  devotional  character.  They  are  invaluable  as 
working  tools  for  carrying  on  the  p)-actical  work  of  the 
church.  Some  of  thorn  have  heen  before  the  public  for 
years  and  have  gained  a  high  and  secure  place  in  the  esti- 
mation of  the  clergy  and  teachers  alike;  others,  not  less  im- 
portant or  helpful  in  character,  are  new,  and  result  from 
later  needs  in  the  church  and  Sunday-school. 

How  t^>  Conduct  Prayer  Meetings,  by  Rev.  Lewis  O 
Thompson,  comes  prominently  under  this  list,  a  volume 
which  has  attained  a  wide,  popularity.  Dr.  Thompson's 
theory  of  what  a  prayer-meeting  should  be  is  based  upon  the 
fact,  that  it  is,  in  the  main,  a  gathering  of  professing  Chris- 
tians for  conference  and  edification,  and  not  a  revival  ser- 
vice for  the  conversion  of  the  impenitent.  The  inquiry 
meeting  has  taken  the  place  of  the  former  revival  prayer- 
rieotings  to  a  great  extent,  and  has  been  found  far  more 
elilcacious  in  producing  results.  A  brief  introduction  is 
furnished  by  the  Rev.  J.  IT.  Vincent,  D.  D.,  in  which  the 
work  is  warmly  commended  to  the  notice  of  all  Christian 
workers,  for  its  sound,  practical  sense,  and  deep  relisrions 
purpose.  Nor  will  Dr.  Vincent  be  alone  in  his  estimate  of 
its  worth.  It  should  be.  read  by  every  pastor,  by  every 
class  leader,  by  every  chnrHi  member.  It  will  serve  to  elear 
away  many  false  impressions,  inspire  fresh  ardor  and  en- 
thusiasm among  lukewarm  church  goers,  and  will  be  aa 
efficient  ;iiil  in  the  promotion  of  Christian  feeling  and 
Christian  work. 


SWITZERLAND.  » 

Switzerland  ha-i  had  many  historians,  but  of  all  the  books 
written  and  printed  upon  that  wonderful  little  republic  we 
cannot  call  to  mind  one  which  can  be  classed  as  a  popular 
history.  Some  of  them  are  too  elaborate  in  detail,  others 
are  too  strongly  interlarded  with  political  dissertations  and 
others  still  are  partial  or  imperfect  in  their  treatment.  Want 
lias  been  needed  is  a  bright,  well  written  story  of  the  coun- 
try, not  too  wide  in  scope  or  diffuse  in  treatment;  a  work 
which  should  give  an  idea  not  only  of  the  various  and  suc- 
ceeding stages  of  historic  developement  through  which  it 
has  passed,  but  a  fair  account  of  its  present  condition.  For 
the  past  fifty  years  Switzerland  has  been  overrun  in  the 
travelling  season  by  visitors,  a  large  number  of  whom  are 
Americans,  and  the  letters  which  are  written  home  find 
place  in  hundreds  of  American  newspapers,  descriptive  of 
its  scenery,  climate  and  people  have  made  all  these  familiar 
lo  those  who  have  been  obliged  to  remain  all  their  lives  on 
this  side  the  water.  But  Switzerland  h:is  something  more  to 
recommend  it  to  those  who  read  than  its  mere  physical  fea- 
tures, its  waterfalls  and  lakes,  its  mountains  and  glaciers. 
There  is  as  great  a  charm  in  its  political  independence,  and 
in  the  history  of  the  causes  which  led  to  it.  As  has  been  re- 
marked, Switzerland  may  be  considered  an  epitome  of  civ- 
ilized Europe;  all  the  parties,  the  theories,  the  expectations 
and  the  pretentious  which  agitate  larger  States  may  be  seen 
here,  making  it  a  country  as  remarkable  among  the  States 
of  the  Old  World  for  its  moral  as  well  as  iis  physical  pecu- 
liarities. Miss  Mackenzie  has  been  a  clnse  student  of  the 
history  of  the  country,  and  her  volume  deserves  a  prominent 
place  in  our  literature.  It  is  very  fully  illustrated,  and 
handsomely  bound. 

Switzerland.  By  Harriet  S'idffl'-Mr.c'cet-zic  Lo  hrm's  Library  of  En- 
ttr.ar.img  History.  Boston:  D.  Lothrop  &  Co.  Prica  £1.50. 


NEW  PUBLICATIONS. 

THE  TEMPTER  BKHIXD.  By  the  Author  of  "  Israel  Mort, 
Overman."  Boston:  D.  Lothrop  A  Co.  Price  $1.25.  Most 
readers  of  fiction  will  remember  "  Israel  Mort,  Overman,"  a 
book  which  created  several  years  ago  a  profound  sensation 
both  in  this  country  and  in  England.  It  was  a  work  of  in- 
tense strength  and  showed  such  promise  on  the  part  of  the 
anonymous  author  that  a  succeeding  work  from  the  same 
hand  has  ever  since  been  anxiously  looked  for,  in  the  belief 
that,  should  it  be  written,  it  would  make  a  yet  more  decided 
impression.  "  The  Tempter  Behind,"  now  just  brought  out 
in  this  country,  shows  that  the  estimate  of  the  public  as  to 
the  ability  of  the  author  was  not  too  high.  It  is  in  every 
way  a  higher  and  stronger  work,  and  one  that  cannot  but 
have  a  marked  effect  wherever  it  is  read.  It  is  not  merely  an 
intensely  interesting  story;  something  more  earnest  than 
the  mere  excitement  of  incident  underlies  the  book.  It  is 
the  record  of  the  struggles  of  a  young  and  ambitious  student 
against  the  demon  of  drink.  TTe  is  an  orphan  —  the  ward  of 
a  rich  uncle  who  proposes  to  settle  his  entire  property  upon 
him  in  case  he  conforms  to  his  wishes.  It  is  the  desire  of 
the  uncle  that  he  shall  become  a  clergyman,  a  profession  for 
which  the  young  man  has  a  strong  and  natural  preference. 
Unknown  to  his  uncle,  he  has  formed  the  habit  of  social 
drinking  at  college  from  which  he  cannot  extricate  himself. 
The  terrible  thirst  for  intoxicants  paralyses  his  will,  and 
renders  him  a  slave  to  the  cup.  Every  effort  lie  makes  is 
unsuccessful.  He  loses  rank  at  college,  and  is  afterward 
dismissed  from  his  post  as  private  secretary  to  an  official  of 
the  government,  on  account  of  the  neglect  of  his  studies  mid 
duties,  but  without  exposure.  His  uncle  knows  his  failures, 
but  not  their  caine,  and  demands  that  he  either  enter  the 
ministerial  profession  for  which  he  has  prepared  himself,  or 
leave  the  shelter  of  his  roof.  The  young  man,  who  has  too 
much  principle  to  assume  a  position  which  he  fears  he  may 
disgrace,  does  not  confide  iu  his  uncle,  and  secretly  departs 
from  the  house,  leaving  behind  him  a  letter  of  farewell,  de- 
termined to  make  one  more  trial  by  himself,  and  among 
strangers,  to  break  the  chains  which  bi:id  him  so  closely. 
The  story  of  his  experience*,  trials  and  temptations  are  viv- 
idly and  almost  painfully  told,  with  thoir  result*.  The  book 
needs  no  commendation.  Through  the  enterprise  of  the 
publishers,  it  make*  its  first  appearance  in  America,  and 
will  be  brought  out  in  London  after  its  issue  here. 


ENTERTAINMENTS. 


EXTERTAINMEXTS  ;  Comprising  Directions  for  Holiday 
Merrymakings,  New  Programmes  for  Amateur  Perform- 
ances, and  Many  Novel  Sunday-school  Exercises.  Collect- 
ed and  Edited  by  Lizzie  W.  Champney.  Boston :  D.  Lo- 
throp  &  Co.  Price  $1.00.  Mrs.  Champney  is  known  as  a 
popular  magazine  writer,  a  poet  of  no  mean  ability. 
The  volume  before  us  is  a  specimen  of  lier  skill  in  another 
direction — that  of  selection  and  compilation;  a  work  requir- 
ing rare  judgment  and  almost  as  much  ability  as  would 
be  necessary  to  produce  an  original  work.  The  table  of  con- 
tents includes  exercises  for  Temperance  gatherings,  Fourth 
of  July,  Missionary  concerts,  Decoration  day,  Thanksgiving 
and  Christinas.  Principally,  however,  they  are  intended  for 
use  at  Sunday-school  exhibitions  and  concerts.  The  ele- 
ment of  entertainment,  says  the  author,  must  enter  even  in- 
to religion,  if  it  is  to  be  dear  to  the  popular  heart.  Enter- 
tainments, at  any  rate,  the  multitude  willK-vve;  it  only  re- 
mains for  Christians  to  decide  whether  they  shall  make  this 
mighty  power  a  Christian  force,  or  leave  all  the  merry  and 
bright  things  of  this  life  to  the  service  of  Satan.  Sunday- 
school  literature  is  very  defective  in  dialogues  and  recita- 
tions of  an  attractive  character,  and  the  preparation  of  a 
programme  for  such  occasions  is  a  malterof  supreme  diffi- 
culty. To  make  it  easier,  and  to  provide  a  source  from 
which  material  may  be  drawn  for  almost  any  occasion,  the 
present  work  has  been  prepared.  Most  of  the  matter  is  new, 
and  is  contributed  by  persons  of  experience  iu  musical  mat- 
ters and  entertainments  of  all  kinds. 

A  chapter  on  "  Accessories,  Decorations,  Scenery,"  etc., 
furnishes  full  information  upon  those  subjects,  and  a  num- 
ber of  patterns  for  evergreen  decorations  for  Christmas  en- 
tertainments are  given.  Taken  altogether,  the  book  exactly 
fills  the  place  for  which  it  was  designed,  and  will  be  warmly 
welcomed  not  only  by  schools  and  societies,  but  in  every  fam- 
ily where  there  are  children  to  be  amused  and  instructed. 


CHEERFUL   WOHDS.» 

In  the  whole  range  of  English  literature  we  can  call  to 
mind  the  works  of  no  single  author  to  which  the  title, 
"Cheerful  Words,"  can  more  properly  apply  than  to  those  of 
George  Macdonald.  It  exactly  expresses  the  element  which 
permeates  everything  from  his  pen,  whether  sermon,  essay, 
story  or  poem  —  an  element  which  strengthens  while  it 
cheers,  which  instills  new  light  and  life  into  the  douhtingor 
discouraged  soul,  and  incites  it  to  fresh  effort. 

In  the  volume  before  us  the  editor  has  hrought  together, 
with  a  careful  and  judicious  hand,  some  of  the  choicest  pas- 
sages from  Macdonald's  works,  written  in  various  keys  and 
upon  various  subjects,  but  all  marked  by  healthy  sentiment 
and  sunshiny  feeling.  In  quoting  what  a  late  critic  has  said 
of  the  "electrical  consciousness"  which  characterizes  his 
•writings,  the  editor  remarks:  "The  breadth  and  manliness 
of  tone  and  sentiment,  the  deep  perceptions  of  human 
nature,  the  originality,  fancy  and  pathos,  the  fresh,  out-of- 
door  atmosphere  everywhere  apparent;  above  all,  the  earnest, 
wholesome,  but  always  unobtrusive  religious  teaching  that 
underlies  all  his  writings,  give  to  the  works  of  George  Mac- 
donald a  certain  magnetic  power  that  is  indescribable." 
And  in  the  selections  here  made  that  power  is  singularly  ap- 
parent. By  turns  they  touch  the  heart,  fire  the  imagination, 
moisten  the  eyes,  arouse  the  sympathies,  and  bring  into 
active  exercise  the  better  feelings  and  instincts  of  mind  and 
heart. 

The  introduction  to  the  volume  is  from  the  pen  of  James 
T.  Fields,  a  persona/  friend  and  ardent  admirer  of  the  au- 
thor. He  regards  Macdonald  as  a  master  of  his  art,  and 
believes  in  holding  up  for  admiration  those  like  him,  who 
have  borne  witness  to  the  eternal  beauty  and  cheerful  capa- 
bilities of  the  universe  around  us,  and  who  are  lovingly 
reminding  us,  whenever  they  write,  of  the  "  holiness  of  help- 
fulness." 

•Cheerful  Words.  By  George  Macdonald.  Introduction  bv  James  T. 
Fields,  and  Biography  by  Emma  E.  Brown.  Spare  Minute  Series.  Boston  .- 
L>.  Lothrop  &  Co.  Price  ji.oo. 


Six  LITTLE  REBELS.  By  Kate  2\innatt  Woods. 
25  crayon  drawings  by  Boz.  Price,  §150.  Boston: 
D.  Lothrop  &  Co. 

Six  LITTLE  REBELS,  is  a  charming  story  of  five 
southern  children,  brought  to  one  of  our  quiet  New 
England  towns  during  the  civil  war.  If  the  south  has 
many  such  families,  a  great  future  lies  before  it,  for  a 
finer  group  of  children  it  would  be  hard  to  reproduce 
in  any  part  of  the  world.  The  characters  are  finely 
drawn,  fresh  and  natural  as  a  June  morning.  They 
accomodate  themselves  to  New  England  life  as  if  to 
the  manor  born ;  and  their  adventures,  and  sporting 
humor,  and  loving  ways  make  up  a  delightful  book. 

Their  temperary  home  was  well  chosen.  Dr.  War- 
rington  is  a  genuine  New  Englander,  with  shrewd  in- 
sight, quiet  ways,  and  a  perfect  self-mastery,  which 
assures  him  great  influence  over  others.  His  daugh- 
ter Dolly  is  a  jewel,  modest,  self-distrustful,  but  gifted 
with  Yankee  faculty,  equal  to  all  emergencies ;  Axy,  too, 
the  maid  of  alFwork,  and  Aunt  Lucinda  are  admirable 
specimens  of«New  England  character.  The  book  is 
certain  to  be  a  favorite  with  children,  who  will  have 
no  end  of  laughter  over  the  pranks,  of  Lex,  the  mis- 
chievous colored  imp,  and  as  much  enjoyment  over 
the  sweet  prattle  of  baby  Bertie.  We  can't  have  too 
much  of  such  literature. 


RECENT     BOOKS. 

TEXSIE  WALTON.  By  Mrs.  S.  II.  Graham  Clark.  Bos- 
ton: D. .  Lotlirop  &  Co.  $1.50.  Of  the  many  good  books 
which  the  Messrs.  Lotlirop  have  prepared  for  the  shelves  of 
Sunday-school  libraries,  "  Ycnsie  Walton"  is  one  of  the 
best.  It  is  a  sweet,  pure  story  of  girl  life,  quiet  as  the  flow 
of  a  brook,  and  yet  of  sufficieiit  interest  to  hold  the  attention 
of  the  most  careless  reader.  Yensie  is  an  orphan,  who  has 
found  a  home  with  an  uncle,  a  farmer,  some  distance  from 
the  city.  Her  aunt,  a  coarse,  vulgar  woman,  and  a  tyrant 
in  the  household,  does  her  best  to  humiliate  her  by  making 
her  a  domestic  drudge,  taking  away  her  good  clothing  and 
exchanging  it  for  coarse,  ill-fitting  garments,  and  scolding 
her  from  morning  till  night.  This  treatment  develops  a 
spirit  of  resistance;  the  mild  and  affectionate  little  girl  be- 
comes passionate  and  disobedient,  and  the  house  is  the 
scene  of  continual  quarrels.  Fortunately,  her  uncle  insists 
upon  her  attending  school,  and  in  the  teacher,  Miss  Gray, 
she  finds  her  first  real  friend.  In  making  her  acquaintance 
a  new  life  begins  for  her.  She  is  brought  in  contact  with 
new  and  better  influences,  and  profiting  by  them  becomes  in 
time  a  sunbeam  in  her  uncle's  house,  and  the  means  of 
softening  the  heart  and  quieting  the  tongue  of  the  aunt  who 
was  once  her  terror  and  dread.  Mrs.  Clark  has  a  very  pleas- 
ing style,  and  is  especially  skilful  in  the  construction  of  her 
stories. 

"Yensie  Walton"  is  a  story  of  great  power,  by  a  new 
author.  It  aims  to  show  that  God  uses  a  stern  discipline  to 
form  the  noblest  characters,  and  that  the  greatest  trials  of 
life  often  prove  the  greatest  blessings.  The  story  is  subor- 
dinate to  this  moral  aim,  and  the  earnestness  of  the  author 
breaks  out  into  occasional  preaching.  But  the  story  is  full 
of  striking  incident  and  scenes  of  great  pathos,  with  occa- 
sional gleams  of  humor  and  fun  by  way  of  relief  to  the  more 
tragic  parts  of  the  narrative.  The  characters  are  strongly 
drawn,  and,  in  general,  are  thoroughly  human,  not  gifted 
with  impossible  perfections  but  having  those  infirmities  of 
the  flesh  which  make  us  all  akin. 


THE  "PANSY"  BOOKS. 

TTu  Chautatffua  Girls  Library.     Each  Volume  $i.;o. 

Fouit  GIRLS  AT  CHAUTAUQUA.  RUTH    ERSKINE'S    CROSSES. 

CHAUTAUQUA  GIRLS  AT  HOME.  LINKS    IN    REBECCA'S  LIFE. 

FROM    DIFFERENT    STANDPOINTS. 

Ester  Reid  Library.     Each  volume  $1.50. 

ESTF.U    REID.  JULIA  REID.  THREE  PEOPLE. 

THE  KING'S  DAUGHTER.  WISE  AND  OTHERWISE. 

Household  Library.     Each  Volume  $1.50. 

HOUSEHOLD  PUZZLES.      ECHOING  AND  RE-ECHOING.      THOSE  BOYS. 
MODERN  PROPHETS.  THE  RANDOLPHS. 

Tip  Lewis  Library.     Each  Volume  $1.50. 

TIP  LEWIS  AND  HIS  LAMP.  SIDNEY  MARTIN'S  CHRISTMAS. 

A  NEW  GRAFT  ON  THE  FAMILY  TREE.    DIVERS  WOMEN. 

Cunning  Workmen  Library.      Each  Volume  $1.25. 

CUNNING  WORKMEN.  Miss  PRISCILLA   HUNTER  AND 
GRANDPA'S  DARLINGS.  MY  DAUGHTER  SUSAN. 

MRS.  DEANE'S  WAY.  WHAT  SHE  SAID  AND 
DR.  DEANE'S  WAY.  WHAT  SHE  MEANT. 

Young  Heroine's  Library.     Each  Volume  \2rno,  $1.00. 

SOME  YOUNG  HEROINES.  MRS.  HARRY  HARPER'S  AWAKENING. 

EUGENE  COOPER.  PANSY'S  SCRAP  BOOK.     (Former  title, 

NEXT  THINGS.  The  Teachers'  Helper.) 

Getting  Ahead  Library.     Each  Volume  $0.75. 

GETTING  AHEAD.  Six  LITTLE  GIRLS.  Two  BOYS. 

MARY  BURTOX  ABROAD.          PANSIES.          THAT  BOY  BOB. 

The  Pansy  Series.     Each  Volume  $0.75. 

JESSIE  WELLS.  HELEN  LESTER.  DOCIAS'  JOURNAL. 

BERNIE'S  WHITE  CHICKEN. 

The  "  Little  Pansy  Series,"  10  volumes.  Boards,  $3.00.  Cloth,  $4.0x3. 

Just  Published.     Each  Volume  $1.50. 
POCKET  MEASURE  (The).  HALL  u?  THE  GROVE  (The). 


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